WALES

Disclosure of Information

Jon Trickett: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales how much her Department spent on the updating of published data in line with the Government's transparency agenda in each month since September 2011.

David Jones: The Wales Office transparency publications has been subsumed into the duties of existing staff, and as such has not been seen as an extra cost.

Mutual Societies

Gareth Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales what estimate she has made of the number of full-time equivalent staff who will transfer from her Department's workforce to a mutual in (a) 2011-12 and (b) 2012-13; and if she will make a statement.

David Jones: No members of staff have transferred to a mutual organisation or mutual joint venture in 2011-12, and there are no plans for staff to transfer to one in 2012-13.

WORK AND PENSIONS

Debts Written Off

Gareth Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how much bad debt was written off by his Department in (a) 2010-11 and (b) 2011-12; and if he will make a statement.

Chris Grayling: The amount of bad debt written off in 2010-11 is shown as follows. Please note that the 2011-12 values are currently being audited and maybe subject to adjustment prior to publication in July, therefore they have not been included in the response.
	
		
			 £ 
			 2010-11 Core Department Core plus NDPBs 
			 Administration expenditure written off 3,618,271 5,763,370 
			 Programme expenditure written off 354,366,377 354,366,377 
			 Total 357,984,648 360,129,747 
		
	
	Programme expenditure written off is made up of contributory benefits, non-contributory benefits and social fund payments.

Employment Schemes

Liam Byrne: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will institute systematic, independent checks with placement hosts before payments are made under the Mandatory Work Activity scheme.

Chris Grayling: Our Mandatory Work Activity providers are contractually obliged to protect DWP from exposure to over-claiming payments and fraud, and to notify the DWP immediately if it has reason to suspect that any fraud or irregularity has occurred or is occurring or is likely to occur. Specifically, they are required to
	have an established system that enables staff to report inappropriate behaviour by colleagues in respect of any claims for payment;
	ensure that the performance management systems do not encourage individual staff to make false claims for payment under the contract;
	ensure a segregation of duties between those staff directly involved in delivering the services and those making claims for payment; and
	establish an audit system to provide periodic checks, at a minimum of six (6) monthly intervals, to ensure effective and accurate recording and reporting of performance.
	Additionally, providers are required to have systems in place to:
	detect and prevent duplicate claims;
	prepare and submit accurate, valid, supported, timely claims;
	monitor, record and manage lateness and all absences;
	support claims for payments through an effective customer attendance recording procedure;
	ensure that all the required evidence is collected (and submitted, where appropriate) to support the claim;
	identify customers who have left placement early, to prevent over claiming;
	carry out effective monitoring of sub-contractors; and
	respond to provider assurance reports with an appropriate action plan.
	We routinely inspect providers' systems to ensure they are adequate and effective and are continually reviewing whether there are additional checks that we should perform to minimise the risk of fraud and error.
	In the case of Mandatory Work Activity, there is an opportunity to further enhance the control environment and, in line with the recent NAO recommendation, we will introduce proportionate checks at placement hosts to validate that clients placed under the Mandatory Work Activity scheme receive their placement.

Employment Schemes

Jon Trickett: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many (a) prime contractors and (b) sub-contractors have pulled out of the Work programme since June 2011; and how many in each such category were charitable and voluntary organisations.

Chris Grayling: No Work programme prime providers have pulled out of the Work programme.
	A total of 28 organisations have withdrawn from the Work programme supply chain between the August and January stock takes. 15 of these are voluntary and community sector organisations.
	A total of 26 organisations have joined the Work programme supply chain between the August and January stock takes. 11 of these are voluntary and community sector organisations.
	A further stock take is planned for July 2012 and every six months thereafter.

Empty Property

Gareth Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will list the empty or largely empty buildings owned by his Department; and if he will make a statement.

Chris Grayling: Since 1998 the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) occupies the majority of its accommodation under a private finance initiative (PFI) known as the PRIME Contract. Under the terms of this PFI the Department leases back fully serviced accommodation from its private sector partner Telereal Trillium, for which it pays an all-inclusive unitary charge. The unitary charge provides for the return to Telereal Trillium of any vacated properties or part vacated properties following a fixed notice period. From the agreed vacation date Telereal Trillium assume full responsibility and risk for the vacated building or vacated area within the building.
	There are however two sites which remained the responsibility of DWP, and which are currently empty:
	Mabbs Cross House, 89 Mesnes Street. Wigan: This is a former Rent Service facility that fell to DWP to manage out once the Rent Service joined the Valuations Office Agency on 31 March 2009, and it became surplus to their requirements. Marketing has so far failed to find a tenant, though the lease from the landlord expires on 23 December 2012; the site will be surrendered at that point; and
	268 High Street Dovercourt Harwich: This site was wholly occupied by the local authority as a sub-tenant. Following the end of this sub-tenancy on 8 February 2011, we have tried to market and engage with the landlord for an early surrender but neither option has proved successful. The lease expires on 23 June 2012 when the landlord will take the property back.

Empty Property

Gareth Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many buildings owned by his Department and the bodies for which he is responsible have been empty for more than two years; and if he will make a statement.

Chris Grayling: Since 1998 the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) occupies the majority of its accommodation under a private finance initiative (PFI) known as the PRIME Contract. Under the terms of this PFI the Department leases back fully serviced accommodation from its private sector partner Telereal Trillium, for which it pays an all-inclusive unitary charge. The unitary charge provides for the return to Telereal Trillium of any vacated properties following a fixed notice period. From the agreed vacation date Telereal Trillium assume full responsibility for the vacated building.
	However, the Department has one property which has been empty for more than two years, and which remains our responsibility. Mabbs Cross House, 89 Mesnes Street, Wigan is a former Rent Service facility that fell to DWP to manage out once the Rent Service joined the Valuations Office Agency on 31 March 2009, and it became surplus to their requirements. Marketing has so far failed to find a tenant, though the lease from the landlord expires on 23 December 2012, when it will be surrendered.

Departmental Staff

Gareth Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what target he has set to reduce headcount across his Department, its non- departmental public bodies and executive agencies in (a) 2010-11, (b) 2011-12 and (c) 2012-13; and if he will make a statement.

Chris Grayling: The Department does not have external headcount targets but staffing profiles have been developed internally based on current financial budgets agreed as part of the spending review 2010 and workload changes.
	The Department reduced staffing by 10,893 full time equivalents (FTE) in 2010-11 with departmental staffing at 97,963 FTE on 31 March 2011. On 31 March 2012 departmental staffing was 88,626 FTE, a further reduction of 9,337 over 2011-12.
	The staffing reductions were managed through a combination of normal staff turnover, non-renewal of fixed term appointments, strict recruitment controls, and targeted early release schemes.
	The Department plans to have a total of 85,177 FTE by March 2013. The plans are subject to ongoing review and may change.
	No specific headcount reduction targets are set for the non-departmental public bodies (NDPBs).

Pay

Gareth Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many staff working for his Department, its executive agencies and non-departmental public bodies are employed through off-payroll engagements costing less than £58,200 per annum; and if he will make a statement.

Chris Grayling: The number of staff within DWP, its executive agencies and non-departmental public bodies employed through off-payroll engagements costing less than £58,200 per
	annum are as follows:
	
		
			  Number 
			 Department for Work and Pensions (1)6 
			 Remploy (2)170 
			 The Pensions Regulator (3)17 
			 Health and Safety Executive (4)3 
			 (1 )As at 28 May 2012 (2 )As at 30 April 2012 (3)As at 29 May 2012 (4)As at 29 May 2012 
		
	
	The remaining bodies have a nil return.
	The people employed off-payroll are all temporary and agency contracted staff.

Public Expenditure

Jeremy Lefroy: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will publish a statement of his Department's expenditure in each of the last 36 months; and what steps his Department is taking to avoid an annual under spend.

Chris Grayling: The Department is due to publish its 2011-12 financial results in July this year. The Department's DEL expenditure by month for the financial years 2009-10 and 2010-11 was as follows:
	
		
			 £ million 
			  2009-10 2010-11 
			 April 659 781 
			 May 670 790 
			 June 683 776 
			 July 733 744 
			 August 729 752 
			 September 781 760 
			 October 757 717 
			 November 823 786 
			 December 810 657 
			 January 818 703 
			 February 704 715 
			 March 865 988 
			 Total 9,032 9,169 
		
	
	The Department performs a continuous planning process involving three major financial reviews during the course of the year. These reviews involve a thorough examination of all operational, administrative and investment expenditure and if potential underspends are identified, then funding is re-prioritised and re-allocated to areas that require additional funding, provided that the funding source is not ring-fenced. If appropriate, the Department also makes use of budget exchange which allows for carry forward of funding within HM Treasury's rules.

TREASURY

Child Benefit

Cathy Jamieson: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what he estimates the cost to his Department to be of (a) providing an online calculator for, (b) providing guidance to and (c) sending a letter to individuals who are above the higher rate tax threshold and may be in receipt of child benefit.

David Gauke: The total cost of providing an online calculator is estimated at £250,000, and the cost of sending a letter to taxpayers with income over £50,000 is estimated at £1 million. These costs are included in the cost estimates provided in the tax information and impact note (TIIN) which was published on HMRC’s website at:
	www.hmrc.gov.uk
	An estimate has not been made of the cost of providing guidance because it is included in HMRC’s resource baseline.

Earnings

Chris Skidmore: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will estimate how many people earn £68,000 or more per year; and what proportion of total earners this represents.

David Gauke: In the tax year 2012-13 it is estimated that there will be 1.5 million taxpayers whose total taxable income will be £68,000 or more. This represents 5.1% of the UK taxpayer population.
	These estimates are based on the Survey of Personal Incomes 2009-10 projected in line with the Office for Budget Responsibility's March 2012 Economic and fiscal outlook.

Equitable Life

Jeremy Lefroy: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what proportion of eligible Equitable Life policy holders have (a) been notified of their entitlement under the compensation scheme and (b) have received, or begun to receive, payments under the scheme.

Mark Hoban: The scheme intends to publish a progress report in summer 2012 on the volumes and values of payments made.

Excise Duties: Fraud

Kevin Barron: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether (a) he or his Ministers, (b) his officials and (c) HM Revenue and Customs officials have met representatives of the tobacco industry and discussed Codentify technology; and whether he has a policy on whether the Codentify tobacco industry security system would be appropriate for the protection of excise duty in the beer and alcohol industry in the UK.

Chloe Smith: Neither the Chancellor of the Exchequer, my right hon. Friend the Member for Tatton (Mr Osborne), nor any Treasury Ministers or officials have met with representatives of the tobacco industry to discuss Codentify technology. HM Revenue and Customs officials have held meetings with the tobacco industry where Codentify technology has been explained by the industry.
	HMRC continue to monitor developments in Codentify and, as part of their consultation on measures to counter alcohol fraud, are exploring all potential options for systems designed to secure revenue in the alcohol sector.

Fraud

Gareth Thomas: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what estimate he has made of the level of (a) procurement and (b) other fraud affecting his Department's spending in (i) 2010-11 and (ii) 2011-12; and if he will make a statement.

Chloe Smith: HM Treasury does not make estimates of the level of procurement and other fraud affecting departmental spend. However, total detected fraud and error is reported in the quarterly data summary available from:
	www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/about_business_plan.htm

Insurance: Motor Vehicles

Bill Esterson: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will bring forward proposals for regulation of the cost of car insurance premiums by the Financial Services Authority.

Mark Hoban: The Financial Services Authority (FSA) is a prudential and conduct regulator. The Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 gave it statutory powers which can be used to meet four statutory objectives; market confidence, financial stability, consumer protection and reduction of financial crime.
	Securing an appropriate degree of consumer protection includes making sure that markets work effectively to give customers a fair deal. However the FSA is not an economic regulator and is not responsible for controlling all of the factors driving high premiums.
	The Government are mindful of the impact of the current cost of this insurance and has set out measures to tackle this by addressing the compensation culture, reducing legal costs and cutting red tape. In February the Prime Minister met with representatives of the industry to discuss these issues: agreed measures include the following:
	an industry commitment to pass savings onto customers resulting from a Government commitment to reduce the current £1,200 fee that lawyers can earn from small value personal injury claims;
	industry commitment to adjust premiums to reflect any reductions in legal costs created through the Jackson reforms that will reform ‘no win, no fee’ and ban referral fees; and extending the road traffic accident claims process to cover employers liability and public liability;
	the Government and insurance industry committed to work together to identify effective ways to reduce the number and cost of whiplash claims; and
	the Government and insurance industry agreed to work together to look at what more can be done regarding young drivers' risk and safety. This includes the wider use of telematics or ‘smartbox’ technology.

Non-domestic Rates

Anne-Marie Morris: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what assessment he has made of the merits of extending small business rate relief until 2015.

David Gauke: At the autumn statement, the Government extended the small business rate relief holiday for a further six months from 1 October 2012. The small business rate relief scheme provides targeted support and benefits over half a million small businesses. Of those, 330,000 receive 100% relief and will not have to pay any business rates until April 2013 as a result of the six-month extension. The Government keeps all taxes and reliefs under review.

Revenue and Customs: Telephone Services

Andrew Griffiths: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the cost of calling the 0845 3000627 HM Revenue and Customs hotline number is from (a) a BT landline, (b) a pay-as-you-go mobile telephone and (c) a contract mobile telephone.

David Gauke: I would refer my hon. Friend to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Slough (Fiona Mactaggart) on 12 October 2011, Official Report, column 967W.

Third Sector

Helen Goodman: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what estimate he has made of the change in income of the voluntary and charitable sector in each region due to (a) decisions in Budget 2012 and (b) spending cuts in (i) 2010, (ii) 2011 and (iii) 2012.

David Gauke: The Government announced at Budget 2012 a proposal to introduce a limit on previously uncapped income tax reliefs from April 2013.
	As set out in the Budget, the Government has explored with charities and philanthropists ways to ensure that this measure would not impact significantly on charities that depend on large donations.
	In light of those discussions, we have decided that when the cap is implemented next year, tax relief on charitable donations will be excluded.
	Data is not available to enable us to make a central estimate of the changes in levels of funding to the sector in 2010, 2011 and 2012.

SCOTLAND

Debts Written Off

Gareth Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how much bad debt was written off by his Department in (a) 2010-11 and (b) 2011-12; and if he will make a statement.

David Mundell: The Scotland Office did not write off any bad debts in (a) 2010-11 and (b) 2011-12.

Disclosure of Information

Jon Trickett: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how much his Office spent on the updating of published data in line with the Government's transparency agenda in each month since September 2011.

David Mundell: The Scotland Office does not centrally record the specific cost of updating of published data on Government's transparency agenda and is therefore unable to provide costs.

Empty Property

Gareth Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will list the empty or largely empty buildings owned by his Office; and if he will make a statement.

David Mundell: The Scotland Office does not own any buildings.

Empty Property

Gareth Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how many buildings owned by his Department and the bodies for which he is responsible have been empty for more than two years; and if he will make a statement.

David Mundell: The Scotland Office and the Boundary Commission for Scotland do not own any buildings.

Fraud

Gareth Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what estimate he has made of the level of (a) procurement and (b) other fraud affecting his Department’s spending in (i) 2010-11 and (ii) 2011-12; and if he will make a statement.

David Mundell: No procurement or other fraud was recorded in the Scotland Office in (i) 2010-11 and (ii) 2011-12. A wide range of security measures are in place to deter and detect fraud. These are kept under review and additional measures are put in place as appropriate.

Departmental Staff

Gareth Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what target he has set to reduce headcount across his Department in (a) 2010-11, (b) 2011-12 and (c) 2012-13; and if he will make a statement.

David Mundell: All staff within the Scotland Office are on secondment from other public bodies, mainly the Ministry of Justice and the Scottish Government. The Scotland Office keeps its headcount under constant review to ensure that the most efficient use is made of public resources.

Mutual Societies

Gareth Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what estimate he has made of the number of full-time equivalent staff who will transfer from his Department’s workforce to a mutual in (a) 2011-12 and (b) 2012-13; and if he will make a statement.

David Mundell: The Scotland Office does not employ staff directly. All staff joins the office on a secondment type arrangement, mainly from the Scottish Government and the Ministry of Justice, which remain the employing Departments. As such, no members of the Scotland Office work force will transfer to a mutual in (a) 2011-12 and (b) 2012-13.

Public Expenditure

Jeremy Lefroy: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will publish a statement of his Department’s expenditure in each of the last 36 months; and what steps he is taking to avoid an annual underspend.

David Mundell: The Scotland Office out-turn for the last 36 months is shown in the following table.
	
		
			  £ million 
			 2009-10 4.690 
			 2010-11 4.854 
			 2011-12(1) 4.430 
			 (1) Unaudited figure. 
		
	
	The Scotland Office keeps expenditure under constant review to ensure that the most efficient use is made of public resources.

TRANSPORT

Commuters

Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what estimate has been made of the average amount of time spent commuting to work in each of the last 10 years for which figures are available.

Norman Baker: The information is shown in the following table:
	
		
			 Average time taken to travel to work (workplace in Great Britain) 
			  Usual time taken to travel to work (minutes) 
			 2002 25 
			 2003 26 
			 2004 26 
			 2005 26 
			 2006 26 
			 2007 24 
			 2008 24 
			 2009 27 
			 2010 27 
			 2011 27 
			 Note: All in employment, aged 16-99, c.35,000 respondents per annum. Source: Labour Force Survey (Office for National Statistics), October-December quarter.

Debts Written Off

Gareth Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how much bad debt was written off by her Department in (a) 2010-11 and (b) 2011-12; and if she will make a statement.

Norman Baker: The amount written off by the Department for 2010-11 is contained within the published Annual report and accounts
	http://assets.dft.gov.uk/publications/dft-annual-report-and-accounts-2010-11/hc972-01.pdf
	The Department's 2011-12 year end position is not yet finalised. The Annual report and accounts to be published in late June/early July 2012 will contain details of the amounts written off during 2011-12.

Home Working

Maria Eagle: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport 
	(1)  how many civil servants in her Department will be working from home during the London 2012 Olympics;
	(2)  how many civil servants in her Department will be working from home during the Paralympic games.

Theresa Villiers: In line with the advice given to businesses and organisations in London by Transport for London, we are encouraging all our staff to plan ahead and to consider different work and travel patterns during the games. The aspiration we have set is to positively change our travel in central London by 50% at games time. Potential options for staff include walking or cycling for all or part of their journey, changing their route of travel to and from work to avoid particularly busy areas, re-timing their working day to avoid the busiest periods or working from another office—as well as working from home. We would expect staff to use a variety of options over the games depending on what is most effective for them and their teams.
	Working from home is only one option, and will not be appropriate for all staff. Through testing, we have ensured that the right systems are in place to ensure that people can be fully productive when they work remotely. In every case, staff will be expected to work just as hard and for the same amount of hours as if they were in the office.

Large Goods Vehicles: Fees and Charges

Maria Eagle: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport when her Department plans to introduce legislative proposals for a heavy goods vehicle charging scheme.

Michael Penning: The Government's legislative programme is announced each Session by the Queen in her speech at the state opening of Parliament. The next opportunity for legislation to implement heavy goods vehicle charging would be in the third parliamentary Session, beginning May 2013. In some circumstances a Bill may be introduced in mid-Session, if other legislation planned for that Session cannot be taken forward. If a Bill were introduced in 2013, this would mean charging for foreign heavy goods vehicles starting in March 2015. The Government as a whole will look at priorities for parliamentary time, in the context of an ambitious reform agenda.

Departmental Staff

Gareth Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what target she has set to reduce headcount across her Department, its non-departmental public bodies and executive agencies in (a) 2010-11, (b) 2011-12 and (c) 2012-13; and if she will make a statement.

Norman Baker: Staff numbers/resource plans for the central Department and each executive agency and non-departmental public body, in the years specified, are set out in the table below. They reflect the changing requirements of operational and transport policy delivery, as well as planned delivery of improvements in efficiency and change programmes.
	
		
			 Staff numbers/resource plans at 31 March 
			  2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 
			 Department for Transport (Centre)(1) 1,772 1,726 1,784 
			 Driving Standards Agency 2,769 2,503 2,383 
			 Driver & Vehicle Licensing Agency 5,580 5,480 5,307 
			 Shared Services Centre(1) 255 244 — 
			 Gov't Car & Despatch Agency 247 176 83 
			 Highways Agency 3,781 3,600 3,474 
			 Maritime & Coastguards Agency 1,090 1,034 1,000 
			 Vehicle Certification Agency 142 148 163 
			 Vehicle & Operator Services Agency 2,461 2,312 2,332 
			 British Transport Police Authority 8 10 9 
			 Directly Operated Railways Ltd(2) 3 3 3 
			 High Speed 2(2) 27 45 200 
			 Northern Lighthouse Board(2) 266 218 209 
			 Passenger Focus(2) 63 42 42 
			 Railway Heritage Committee(2) 1 1 1 
			 Trinity House(2) 285 281 279 
			 Traffic Commissioners(2) 7 7 7 
			 Department Total 18,756 17,830 17,276 
			 Figures are full-time equivalent (FTE) staff except where stated below: (1) DfT(C) data is actual headcount, not FTE, for 2010/11 as is that for the Shared Services Centre for 2010/11 and 2011/12. The Shared Services Centre is expected to be divested in 2012/13. (2) Trinity House, Northern Lighthouse Board, Directly Operated Railways Ltd, High Speed 2, Passenger Focus, Railway Heritage Committee and Traffic Commissioners figures are given as headcount, not FTE staff.

Procurement

Jim Fitzpatrick: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what proportion of her Department's expenditure on procurement has gone to small and medium-sized enterprises in the UK since May 2010.

Norman Baker: I refer the hon. Member to my reply on 21 May 2012, Official Report, column 388W.

NORTHERN IRELAND

Correspondence

Gareth Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many letters to Ministers in his Department were (a) not answered, (b) not answered within six months and (c) not answered within three months in (i) 2010-11 and (ii) 2011-12; how many such letters were from hon. Members; and if he will make a statement.

Owen Paterson: In 2010-11, one letter to Ministers went unanswered; in addition one other was unanswered within both three and six months.
	In 2011-12, one letter to Ministers went unanswered; in addition three others were unanswered within three months but were responded to within six months. One of these letters was from an hon. Member.

Diamond Jubilee 2012

Lady Hermon: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what funding his Department has allocated for the celebration of HM The Queen's Diamond Jubilee in Northern Ireland.

Owen Paterson: National celebrations were financed mainly from private sponsorship so there was no requirement or expectation for Departments of State to incur expenditure to celebrate the diamond jubilee of Her Majesty the Queen. Many events to celebrate the jubilee were held across Northern Ireland and I was of course delighted to light the beacon at Hillsborough to commemorate Her Majesty's 60 years of service and dedication to our nation.

Disclosure of Information

Jon Trickett: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how much his Department spent on the updating of published data in line with the Government's transparency agenda in each month since September 2011.

Owen Paterson: The Northern Ireland Office has incurred no additional expenditure in updating published data in line with the Government's transparency agenda.

Empty Property

Gareth Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will list the empty or largely empty buildings owned by his Department; and if he will make a statement.

Owen Paterson: My Department does not own any empty or largely empty buildings.

Empty Property

Gareth Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many buildings owned by his Department and the bodies for which he is responsible have been empty for more than two years; and if he will make a statement.

Owen Paterson: None of the buildings owned by my Department have been empty for more than two years.
	My Department has two non-departmental public bodies—the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission and the Parades Commission for Northern Ireland. Both public bodies are independent of Government and the hon. Gentleman may wish to write to the Commissions directly on these matters.

Immigrants

Mark Pritchard: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many Iranian citizens live in Northern Ireland.

Owen Paterson: My Department does not hold this information. I suggest my hon. Friend contacts the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency which is an Executive Agency within the Northern Ireland Department of Finance and Personnel.

Departmental Staff

Ian Paisley Jnr: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland pursuant to the answer of 15 March 2012, Official Report, column 353W, on manpower, what the grades and job titles are of the 84 staff directly employed by his Department; and for what purpose the 78 staff on secondment or loan from other Government departments and organisations are being employed.

Hugo Swire: The 84 members of staff referred to in the answer of 15 March 2012 include six senior civil servants; 12 Grade As, six senior executive officers, 21 higher executive officers, 22 executive officers, 10 administrative officers and seven administrative assistants. These post holders do not have specific job titles.
	The role of my Department is to represent Northern Ireland's interests at Westminster and to represent the Government in Northern Ireland. Secondments or loans from other Government Departments and organisations are used to ensure access to individuals who have a detailed knowledge and understanding of Northern Ireland-related issues in order to fulfil this role.

Official Visits

Jonathan Ashworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how much his Department spent on accommodation for Ministers and officials during official visits to Northern Ireland in each of the last two years.

Owen Paterson: Over the last two years, my Department did not incur any expenditure on accommodation for Ministers or officials during official visits to Northern Ireland.

JUSTICE

Empty Property

Gareth Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice 
	(1)  if he will list the empty or largely empty buildings owned by his Department; and if he will make a statement;
	(2)  how many buildings owned by his Department and the bodies for which he is responsible have been empty for more than two years; and if he will make a statement.

Kenneth Clarke: The Ministry of Justice is committed to reducing the operating cost of its estate by rationalising through disposal or lease surrender when appropriate.
	As such the Department has a number of empty buildings, the majority of which are either awaiting disposal or under offer.
	The list of empty Ministry of Justice properties as of 31 May 2012 is as follows (properties empty for two or more years are marked*):
	Property name
	Candleford Road, Manchester*
	Harropwell Lane, Pontefract
	Ock Street, Abingdon
	Princess Drive, Liverpool
	Stowe Court, Lichfield*
	The Boulevard, Weston-super-Mare*
	The Old Convent, Pulteney Road, Bath
	Thurstan House, Northallerton
	Towngate, Leyland
	Ammanford magistrates court
	Ashford magistrates and county courts
	Balham youth court
	Barking and Dagenham magistrates court
	Barnsley county court
	Barry magistrates court
	Bingley magistrates court
	Bishop Auckland magistrates and county court
	Blaydon magistrates court
	Bridgwater magistrates court
	Bridport magistrates court
	Bristol magistrates court (Nelson Street)*
	Cardigan magistrates court
	Cirencester magistrates court
	Consett county court
	Daventry magistrates court
	Dewsbury county court
	Dewsbury magistrates court
	Didcot magistrates court
	Ely magistrates court
	Epping magistrates court
	Gosforth magistrates court
	Halesowen magistrates court
	Hemel Hempstead magistrates court
	Honiton magistrates court
	Keighley courthouse
	Launceston magistrates court
	Lewes magistrates court
	Lyndhurst magistrates court
	Market Harborough magistrates court
	Melton Mowbray magistrates and county courts
	Newark magistrates and county courts
	Pontypool county court
	Port Talbot magistrates court
	PWB House, Sandbach*
	Pwllheli magistrates court
	Rawtenstall magistrates court
	Redditch county court
	Retford magistrates court
	Rochdale magistrates court
	Salford magistrates court
	Sittingbourne magistrates court
	Sudbury magistrates court
	Swaffham magistrates court
	Tamworth magistrates and county courts
	The Villa, Houghton le Spring
	Thetford magistrates court
	Totnes magistrates court
	Wantage magistrates court
	Wareham magistrates court
	Weston-super-Mare magistrates court*
	Whitehaven magistrates court
	Wisbech magistrates court
	Woking magistrates court
	Former HMP Ashwell site
	Former HMP Brockhill site
	Former HMP Latchmere House site
	Former RAF Coltishall site*
	Former police training college, Cwmbran*.

Pay

Gareth Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many staff working for his Department, its executive agencies and non-departmental public bodies are employed through off-payroll engagements costing less than £58,200 per annum; and if he will make a statement.

Kenneth Clarke: The Ministry of Justice does not hold a central record of the numbers of workers in the Department, its executive agencies and non-departmental public bodies who are engaged off payroll and cost less than £58,200 per annum. These workers are engaged locally through recruitment agencies (for clerical, administrative and ancillary workers) and medical agencies (for nurses, doctors and pharmacists). Obtaining this information will incur a disproportionate cost.

Public Expenditure

Jeremy Lefroy: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice if he will publish a statement of his Department's expenditure in each of the last 36 months; and what steps he is taking to avoid an annual underspend.

Jonathan Djanogly: The Department's expenditure in each of the last 36 months is shown in the following table. The figures represent the Department's total resource departmental expenditure limit (DEL) which includes the depreciation of capital assets.
	
		
			 Amount (£ million) 
			 Month 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 
			 April 758 722 607 
			 May 705 708 723 
			 June 699 705 834 
			 July 766 712 686 
			 August 754 719 723 
			 September 715 727 713 
			 October 781 748 692 
			 November 748 702 748 
			 December 745 866 733 
			 January 787 753 735 
			 February 792 767 771 
			 March 791 823 885 
			 Total(1) 9,041 8,952 8,850 
			 (1) The figures above relate to in-year financial management data reported to the Finance Management Committee and will therefore not match the audited figures published in the Department's annual resource accounts. 
		
	
	The Department has taken significant steps over the past 18 months to strengthen its financial management capability through its finance improvement strategy. The strategy is being delivered through a Finance Improvement programme and supports the Department in meeting the challenges of the spending review period and beyond. As is consistent with good financial management, the Department regularly monitors its spend in-year to identify potential over and under-spending. This includes monthly reporting to the Financial Management Committee, which reviews in-year spend on a monthly basis, and keeps contingency options to mitigate the risks of over and under-spending under constant review. This process ensures measures are introduced in a timely manner and that the Department remains consistent in securing value for money. The Department has also introduced a bi-annual process to challenge the financial forecasting in Business Groups and to help inform the annual budget allocation process.

HOME DEPARTMENT

Fraud

Gareth Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what estimate she has made of the level of (a) procurement and (b) other fraud affecting her Department's spending in (i) 2010-11 and (ii) 2011-12; and if she will make a statement.

Damian Green: The Home Office has not made an estimate of the level of procurement and other fraud affecting departmental spend. The Home Office strongly supports the work of the Fraud, Error and Debt Taskforce including the need for improved measurement and assessment of fraud and error. The Home Office is therefore currently tendering for a fraud threat and impact assessment to be undertaken. The results of this work will be used to focus counter-fraud resources on high-risk areas.
	The Home Office also recently undertook a review of counter-fraud capability across the Home Office Group, and is now in the process of implementing recommendations arising from the review which will lead to significant improvements in fraud prevention and detection.

Departmental Staff

Gareth Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what target she has set to reduce headcount across her Department, its non-departmental public bodies and Executive agencies in (a) 2010-11, (b) 2011-12 and (c) 2012-13; and if she will make a statement.

Damian Green: The Home Office spending review settlement requires it to make reductions of 33% in its administration budget and 21% in its programme budget by March 2015. The Home Office, its agencies and non-departmental public bodies are reducing headcount to deliver financial savings, but have not set specific targets for headcount reduction in previous years or for the remainder of this spending review period.
	The Home Office, its agencies and non-departmental public bodies began making work force reductions in April 2010, since then have made approximately 6,100 FTE (full-time equivalent) reductions in payroll staff (as of March 2012). Early assumptions were that a further reduction in the paid work force of around 2,300 FTE would need to be made by March 2015. Detailed work force plans for each year within that period have not been finalised. Our work force plans this year include ensuring we are able to support a safe and successful Olympics.
	Please note data are gathered from different sources and future projections are subject to change. These are our best data available at this time.
	
		
			 Table 1: Work force numbers 
			  Paid FTE Difference 
			 2009-10 29,264 — 
			 2010-11 27,324 -1,940 
			 2011-12 24,645 -2,679 
			 2012-13 (1)25,073 — 
			 (1) Projected

Stop and Search

Heidi Alexander: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to the answer of 21 May 2012, Official Report, column 844, what consideration she has given to widening the scope of the Association of Chief Police Officers’ review to include an assessment of both good and bad practice in the use of stop and search by the police.

Nick Herbert: holding answer 11 June 2012
	The Secretary of State for the Home Department, my right hon. Friend the Member for Maidenhead (Mrs May), commissioned the Association of Chief Police Officers to undertake an assessment of good practice on stop and search with the aim of raising standards in its application across all forces. We have no plans to extend the scope of the review.

Stop and Search

Heidi Alexander: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people were stopped and searched by the police under section 60 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994, by ethnicity in (a) 2010-11 and (b) 2011-12.

Nick Herbert: holding answer 11 June 2012
	The latest available data held by the Home Office relate to 2010-11 and were published in table SS.14 of the recent online National Statistics release “Police Powers and Procedures 2010/11”. This can be found via the stop and search briefing and tables links at:
	http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk
	Data for 2011-12 will be published early next year.

UK Border Agency

Ian Lavery: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the cost to the UK Border Agency has been of the Country Escort contract in each of the last 10 years.

Damian Green: The UK Border Agency does not hold information relating to the Country Escort contract prior to 2006. The following table outlines the cost of the contract from 2006:
	
		
			  Cost (£) 
			 2010-11 51,683,916 
			 2009-10 45,712,305 
			 2008-09 42,330,850 
			 2007-08 36,947,442 
			 2006-07 35,492,843 
		
	
	Information relating to the cost of the contract from 2011-12 onwards can be found at the following link:
	http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/publications/about-us/transparency/transparency-spend/

COMMUNITIES AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT

Empty Property

Gareth Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government 
	(1)  if he will list the empty or largely empty buildings owned by his Department; and if he will make a statement;
	(2)  how many buildings owned by his Department and the bodies for which he is responsible have been empty for more than two years; and if he will make a statement.

Bob Neill: The Department for Communities and Local Government owns one vacant freehold property—Hangar 97, Little Rissington Airfield, Gloucestershire. The property comprises 4,300 square metres and is located on a Ministry of Defence airfield. The Department is currently considering options for future use or disposal action.
	The Department has worked hard to reduce surplus property liabilities, using a range of approaches including surrender, open market disposals and transfers to other Government Departments. As set out in Appendix A of “The State of the Estate 2011”, the Department's administrative estate was reduced from 248,618 square metres to 160,627 square metres during the calendar year 2011, a reduction of 87,991 square metres or 35%. The Report can be found at:
	http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/sites/default/files/resources/HMG_StateOfEstate_acc2.pdf

Fraud

Gareth Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what estimate he has made of the level of (a) procurement and (b) other fraud affecting his Department's spending in (i) 2010-11 and (ii) 2011-12; and if he will make a statement.

Bob Neill: Since 2010 Departments have reported detected fraud and error on their quarterly data summaries. These quarterly data summaries are published on departmental websites. There have been no frauds reported in 2010-11 or 2011-12.
	My Department has following control arrangements in place to counter fraud:
	A fraud policy statement and fraud response plan on the Department's Intranet that is accessible to all staff. These advise staff on the steps to take if they suspect fraud.
	We have signed up to the Audit Commission's National Fraud Initiative, which is the UK's main public sector fraud detection tool, which offers payroll and creditor data-matching services to central Government Departments, agencies and local authorities.
	We have a Fraud, Error and Debt Champion who has represented the Department in the Fraud Error and Debt initiatives that have been driven by the Minister for the Cabinet Office and the National Fraud Authority.
	We are working with the Cabinet Office on a Fraud Awareness Week, currently planned for the autumn.

Housing: Construction

Jack Dromey: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what the number of residential planning permissions granted by local planning authorities is for each quarter from quarter 1 in 1997 to quarter 1 in 2012.

Bob Neill: Information on the number of residential planning permissions granted by local planning authorities in England for each quarter between quarter 1 in 1997 to quarter 4 in 2011 (the most recent available) has been placed in the Library of the House.
	These figures show that the number of granted permissions rose by 7% in 2011 compared to 2009.

Departmental Administration Costs

John Redwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how much was spent on the administration of his Department in (a) 2009-10, (b) 2010-11 and (c) 2011-12.

Bob Neill: The expenditure of the Department for 2009-10 is contained in the published annual accounts at:
	http://www.communities.gov.uk/publications/corporate/clgresourceaccounts0910
	The expenditure of the Department for 2010-11 is contained in the published annual report and accounts at:
	http://www.communities.gov.uk/corporate/about/howwework/corporatereports/reportsaccounts/annualreports/#
	HM Treasury published the February 2012 forecast outturn for all Government Departments in its 2012 Budget Publication. For DCLG, there was a forecast administration underspend of £6.95 million. Following further clarification of the end of year position, the Department was able to transfer £20 million to 2012-13 as part of the Budget Exchange scheme and use a further £35 million of underspend to pay down deficits in one of the pension plans of the Homes and Communities Agency, thereby reducing the Department's obligations in respect of pension contributions in the future.
	The Department's 2011-12 year-end position is not yet finalised. HM Treasury will provide an update on the expenditure forecasts of all Government Departments in July in the 2012 Public Expenditure Statistical Analysis.
	As part of the spending review settlement, the DCLG Group is making a collective 33% real terms saving against its running costs by 2014-15. This equates to savings of over £200 million by 2014-15. In addition, the Department will save a further £190 million from the closure of the Government Offices for the Regions, taking overall savings on administrative running costs to 42% across the DCLG Group by 2014-15.
	These savings reflect the coalition Government's agenda of decentralisation, ending the micromanagement of local government, the abolition of regional government, and the broader need to tackle the deficit left by the last Administration.

Planning Permission

Sarah Newton: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government when he plans to publish regulations on the procedures for referenda on Neighbourhood Plans.

Bob Neill: The regulations which will govern the conduct of Neighbourhood Planning referendums were laid on 11 June 2012.

Social Rented Housing

Jack Dromey: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many tenants have moved through the HomeSwap Direct scheme since its launch.

Grant Shapps: I refer the hon. Member to the response I gave on 23 May 2012, Official Report, column 683W, to the hon. Member for Mid Dorset and North Poole (Annette Brooke).
	The success of the new nationwide home swap scheme HomeSwap Direct, which has already enabled tenants to carry out over 1 million searches, is in stark contrast to the performance of the MoveUK mobility scheme—a centrally prescribed service, contracted out to a single private provider and funded at the taxpayers' expense, which the previous Government designed and then failed to deliver.

Temporary Employment

Jack Dromey: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what the total amount spent by his Department on employing temporary staff has been since May 2010.

Bob Neill: The Department has spent the following on contingent labour:
	
		
			 Period Amount 
			 2009-10 £14.4 million 
			 May 2010 to March 2011 £4.0 million 
			 2011-12 £2.9 million 
			 April 2012 £310,360 
		
	
	Spending has been drastically reduced compared to the last Administration as a result of the Department's tightening of its internal management controls, institutionalising these in its systems and adhering to Treasury and Cabinet Office spending rules.
	These savings also reflect the coalition Government's agenda of decentralisation, ending the micromanagement of local government, the abolition of regional government, and the broader need to tackle the deficit left by the last Administration.
	In answering this question, we have used the Cabinet Office definition for contingent labour (temporary staff) which includes admin and clerical agency staff, interim managers and specialist contractors.

Written Questions: Government Responses

David Anderson: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government when he plans to answer question 106889 tabled by the hon. Member for Blaydon on 10 May 2012 for answer on 14 May 2012.

Greg Clark: Parliamentary question 106889 was answered on 11 June 2012, Official Report, column 7-8W.

CABINET OFFICE

Debts Written Off

Gareth Thomas: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office how much bad debt was written off by his Department in (a) 2010-11 and (b) 2011-12; and if he will make a statement.

Francis Maude: Details of debts are published in the Cabinet Office Annual Report and Accounts 2010-11, available from the House of Commons Library and on the Cabinet Office website:
	http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/resource-library/cabinet-office-annual-reports-and-accounts
	Details for 2011 -12 will be published shortly.

Public Sector: Procurement

Martin Horwood: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office how many and what proportion of public procurement tenders have been awarded to companies outside the EU and the European Free Trade Association since 2007 by the (a) number of contracts awarded and (b) value of contracts; and if he will make a statement.

Francis Maude: holding answer 11 June 2012
	This information is not held centrally. However, until the reforms introduced under this Government, little was known about Government procurement spend across the board.
	Since January 2011, as part of the Government's transparency programme, details of contracts above the value of £10,000 are published on Contracts Finder:
	http://www.contractsfinder.co.uk/
	Furthermore, to safeguard UK competitiveness and growth, in April the Government published data on £70 billion of potential future contracts over the next five years, to enable Government and industry to work together to spot any skills and investment gaps.

BUSINESS, INNOVATION AND SKILLS

Procurement

Gordon Banks: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills if he will take steps to ensure that payments to public sector contractors hired by his Department are made within 30 days.

Mark Prisk: holding answer 21 May 2012
	The Government aims for the public sector to lead the prompt payment agenda by example. Accordingly, central Government Departments are committed to paying 80% of invoices within five days; further, central Government suppliers are contractually required to pay their tier 2 subcontractors within 30 days, driving the benefits of prompt payment down the supply chain. In April 2012, the Department paid 91% of invoices within five days.

LEADER OF THE HOUSE

Electronic Government: Petitions

Graham Jones: To ask the Leader of the House whether 
	(1)  he has considered moving responsibility for administering the e-petitions system from the executive to the House of Commons;
	(2)  whether he has considered the creation of a committee to give parliamentary oversight of the e-petitions system.

George Young: Any changes to the role of the House of Commons in relation to e-petitions would be a matter for the Procedure Committee to consider in the first instance.

PRIME MINISTER

Correspondence

Gareth Thomas: To ask the Prime Minister how many letters to Ministers in his Office were (a) not answered, (b) not answered within six months and (c) not answered within three months in (i) 2010-11 and (ii) 2011-12; how many such letters were from hon. Members; and if he will make a statement.

David Cameron: My Office has responded to almost 136,000 letters since 12 May 2010. We aim to reply to all correspondence swiftly.

ENERGY AND CLIMATE CHANGE

Carbon Emissions

Caroline Flint: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change pursuant to the oral answer of 17 May 2012, Official Report, columns 687-8, on the low-carbon economy, if he will place a copy of his letter to the Prime Minister in the Library.

Gregory Barker: It is not the normal practice of Government to disclose internal discussion and advice.

Debts Written Off

Gareth Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change how much bad debt was written off by his Department in (a) 2010-11 and (b) 2011-12; and if he will make a statement.

Gregory Barker: The Department wrote off £90,000 in 2010-11. This relates to energy efficiency loans made to small and medium sized entities who were unable to repay their debts. The impairment was disclosed on page 117 of DECC annual report and accounts in 2010-11 which can be found at the following link:
	http://www.decc.gov.uk/assets/decc/11/about-us/goals-commitments/2212-decc-annual-report-20102011.pdf
	The Department's 2011-12 year end position is not yet finalised. The annual report and accounts to be published July 2012 will contain details of the amounts written off during 2011-12.

Energy: Meters

Chris Evans: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what his most recent estimate is of the number of households which have had (a) an electricity and (b) a gas prepayment meter fitted in the last 12 months.

Charles Hendry: Ofgem monitors and publishes information about the use of prepayment meters in its Domestic Suppliers' Quarterly Debt and Disconnection Reports:
	http://www.ofgem.gov.uk/Sustainability/SocAction/Monitoring/SoObMonitor/Pages/SocObMonitor.aspx
	The following table shows the total number of prepayment meters installed during Q3 2011, Q2 2011, Q1 2011 and Q4 2010 (latest data to be published).
	
		
			 Period Electricity prepayment meters Gas prepayment meters 
			 Q3 2011 56,037 59,426 
			 Q2 2011 53,106 51,656 
			 Q1 2011 58,293 52,949 
			 Q4 2010 57,541 45,414

Fuel Poverty

Bob Ainsworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what steps his Department is taking to reduce the levels of fuel poverty in (a) Coventry, (b) Coventry North East constituency and (c) England.

Gregory Barker: holding answer 11 June 2012
	The coalition Government are committed to tackling fuel poverty and supporting vulnerable consumers to heat their homes at an affordable cost.
	We continue to fund the Warm Front scheme, providing low income vulnerable households, living in energy inefficient properties, with a range of energy efficient heating and insulation measures. Since 2005 Warm Front has assisted 9,715 households in Coventry, 4,204 in Coventry North East Constituency(1). Since the start of the scheme in June 2000 the scheme has assisted 2.3 million households across England.
	In winter 2011-12, the warm home discount scheme provided energy supplier funded discounts to well over 660,000 of the poorest pensioners across Great Britain with a core group discount of £120 off their electricity bills. Nearly 600,000 of these customers will have received the discount without having to claim as a result of data matching between Government and energy suppliers. This is a significant benefit for a group which may struggle to claim. Other low income vulnerable households may also be assisted through the scheme. Overall we expect 2 million low income vulnerable households a year to be assisted through the warm home discount scheme.
	In addition, Government provide pensioner households with winter fuel payments to help with additional heating costs during the winter. Cold weather payments are also made to low income and vulnerable households where there is an average temperature of 0°C or below for seven consecutive days. These payments have been permanently increased to £25 per week and in winter 2011-12 over 5 million cold weather payments were paid in Great Britain worth an estimated £129 million.
	(1 )This information is only available post 2005.

Health Insurance

Gordon Henderson: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change how many staff working in his Department are entitled to private health care as part of their remuneration package.

Gregory Barker: The Department of Energy and Climate Change does not offer private health care to any of its staff.

ATTORNEY-GENERAL

Debts Written Off

Gareth Thomas: To ask the Attorney-General how much bad debt was written off by the Law Officers' Departments in (a) 2010-11 and (b) 2011-12; and if he will make a statement.

Edward Garnier: The amount of bad debt written off by the Law Officers' Departments during the last two financial years is contained in the following table:
	
		
			 £ 
			 Department 2010-11 2011-12 
			 Crown Prosecution Service (CPS)(1) 2,700,000 (4)4,500,000 
			 Serious Fraud Office (SFO)(2) — (4)274,000 
			 Treasury Solicitor's Department (TSol)(3) 87,104 81,883 
			 HM Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate — — 
			 Attorney-General's Office — — 
			 (1) The majority of debts written off by the CPS relate to unpaid costs awards made against convicted defendants at the discretion of a judge or magistrate. A small number of low value commercial bad debts were also written off. (2) This debt related to two costs awards made in February 2004 (£124,000) and October 2007 (£150,000), for which the SFO had exhausted all avenues of recovery. (3) TSol provides legal services primarily to other Government Departments. In deciding to write off a debt it gives due consideration to the age of debt, administration cost of recovery and whether a loss to government funds would result. TSol invoices in excess of £100 million per annum. The write-off in 2010-11 and 2011-12 represents less than 0.1% of income. (4) Figures provided for 2011-12 are unaudited and may be subject to minor adjustment.

FOREIGN AND COMMONWEALTH AFFAIRS

Democratic Republic of Congo

Ian Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what advice, assistance and financial aid the Government provides bilaterally to the security forces in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Henry Bellingham: The Government does not provide financial aid to security forces overseas. But in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), we fund, or co-fund the following projects:
	Training DRC army staff to speak English: a £150,000 a year, three-year project, implemented by the British Council. This enables closer co-operation of Congolese forces with the UN peacekeeping force, the UN Organisation Stabilisation Mission in the DRC.
	Funding for three senior staff in the EU mission in support of security sector reform.
	Assistance to military and civilian justice authorities through mentoring and technical and logistical support to help tackle impunity.
	A £60 million Department for International Development police reform programme, including: community police training and resource management; capacity-building and legal support to community policing at the Ministry of Interior and in local government; and support for civil society groups providing oversight of policing.

Fraud

Gareth Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what estimate he has made of the level of (a) procurement and (b) other fraud affecting his Department's spending in (i) 2010-11 and (ii) 2011-12; and if he will make a statement.

David Lidington: The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) total identified fraud losses for the financial years 2010-11 and 2011-12 were £103,000 and £197,000 respectively. These figures represent around 0.01% of our budget. The FCO does not differentiate between procurement and other forms of fraud.
	The FCO takes fraud and financial impropriety very seriously. A robust control framework that mitigates the risk of fraud is in place. We have enhanced our “whistle blowing” procedures to make it easier for staff to report concerns and any accusations of fraud or impropriety are thoroughly investigated and, if proven, appropriate action is taken.

Guinea-Bissau

Stephen Phillips: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what recent assessment his Department has made of the political situation in Guinea-Bissau; and if he will make a statement.

Henry Bellingham: We remain deeply concerned about the situation in Guinea-Bissau following the coup d’état there on 12 April. We have joined our international partners in condemning the coup and calling for a return to constitutional order, and have supported the imposition of EU and UN restrictive measures against those responsible for the coup.
	We welcome the regional leadership shown by the Economic Community of West African States, and are working with them, the Africa Union, the Community of Portuguese Language Countries and the UN to ensure we maintain a coherent, unified response. Co-ordinated action will be vital in sending a clear signal to the military that the international community will not accept coups d’état, and in ensuring a return to constitutional order in Guinea-Bissau.

Iran

Douglas Alexander: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs 
	(1)  when he is next due to meet his EU counterparts to discuss the implementation of EU sanctions to prevent EU countries from providing insurance for the transport of Iranian crude oil and petroleum products;
	(2)  what discussions he has had with his EU counterparts about the predicted economic effect of EU sanctions to prevent EU countries from providing insurance for the transport of Iranian crude oil and petroleum products;
	(3)  when EU sanctions will come into force to prevent EU countries from providing insurance for the transport of Iranian crude oil and petroleum products.

William Hague: The UK and our international partners are committed to increasing the pressure on Iran until it negotiates seriously on the nuclear issue. The EU ban on insurance for the transport of Iranian crude and petroleum products (Protection and Indemnity insurance) is due to take effect on 1 July, alongside the embargo on oil imports. As agreed with EU partners earlier this year, my officials—and those of other EU member states—are reviewing aspects of the insurance measures to ensure that, while maximising the pressure on Iran, they do not have any undesirable side effects. EU Foreign Ministers will next discuss Iran on 25 June at the Foreign Affairs Council.

Mali

Angus Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what recent assessment he has made of the security situation in Mali.

Henry Bellingham: We support the progress that has been made towards returning Mali to constitutional, civilian rule following the forcible seizure of power on 21 March. We welcome the inauguration of interim President Dioncounda Traoré on 12 April and continue to support the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS)-led efforts to return Mali to full democracy, including the holding of elections. But we remain deeply concerned by the deteriorating security situation in the north of the country following the capture of three cities by Tuareg insurgents, some with reported connections to al-Qaeda.
	We understand that agreement was reached over the weekend of 19-20 May to extend the mandate of the interim government for a further 12 months. However, the status of this agreement remains unclear following the attack on President Traoré on 21 May. Reports suggest that over 300,000 men, women and children have been uprooted by the current crisis in Mali. This on-going conflict is further exacerbating the already worsening food crisis that is currently affecting some 18 million people across the Sahel.
	We condemn the latest violence and continue to engage actively—including through our recently reopened embassy—with ECOWAS, regional governments and our international partners to support a swift return to democratic, constitutional government.

NATO

Hugh Bayley: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make it his position at the North Atlantic Council that NATO’s external audit, currently provided under the International Board of Auditors of NATO, should be conducted (a) by auditors who are independent of NATO and (b) in a way which is compliant with the International Standards of Supreme Audit Institutions.

David Lidington: The International Board of Auditors of NATO is fully independent from the commands and agencies which it audits, and answers directly to the North Atlantic Council, which provides political leadership. IBAN undertakes its audits in accordance with the principles of the auditing standards of the International Organisation of Supreme Audit Institutions (INTOSAI), complemented, as and when required, by the International Standards on Auditing issued by the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC). The UK has consistently been a strong advocate of these fundamental auditing principles and we continue to see audit as an essential element in our drive to secure the proper and effective control of NATO common funds.

Olympic Games 2012

Douglas Alexander: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what plans his Department has to make use of the opportunity of world leaders and senior politicians attending the 2012 Olympics to pursue his goals of diplomacy; and if he will make a statement.

William Hague: Heads of State and Government are invited to attend the London Olympic and Paralympic games by their National Olympic and Paralympic Committees. It is not yet clear which Heads of State and Government will attend since many will defer finalising their plans until closer to the time. For planning purposes we are using figures based on extrapolation from attendance at previous games.
	The Olympic and Paralympic games are first and foremost a festival of sport and a celebration of human sporting endeavour. But we welcome the opportunity that the games present to demonstrate Britain's qualities to the world and will work to ensure that those that visit us have the best possible experience of their time here. We hope that stronger bilateral relationships will be part of the legacy of the games.

Pay

Gareth Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how many staff working for his Department, its executive agencies and non-departmental public bodies are employed through off-payroll engagements costing less than £58,200 per annum; and if he will make a statement.

Henry Bellingham: The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) engages contractors because it requires specialist skills and expertise that are not readily available within its permanent work force. The FCO also engages specialist contractor staff to work on shorter term projects. The main body of the FCO engages 16 contractors through Hays Consulting who individually cost less than £58,200 per annum. But it is conducting a comprehensive review to check whether there are any other contractors who have been employed off-payroll who meet this criterion. But we have not identified any as yet. This review will identify all contractors who are paid off payroll. It will also include the FCO's non-departmental public bodies and FCO Services, a trading fund of the FCO delivering secure estates, ICT and logistics services to the FCO and a range of government and international customers. FCO Services receives no direct public funding, relying solely on the revenue it generates from its customers; it currently engages 102 contractors costing less than £58,200 per annum. According to the current information available from the NDPBs, Westminster Foundation for Democracy has one; the British Council, Great Britain China Centre, Foreign Compensation Commission and Marshall Aid Commemoration Commission do not have any who meet the stated criteria. Staff working for the BBCWS are employed on BBC terms and conditions which is the responsibility of the BBC Trust who report to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

Sri Lanka

Ian Paisley Jnr: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what reports he has received on the internally displaced persons (IDPs) covered under the UNHCR’s contract with Sri Lanka; and whether the guidelines include the 100,000 Muslims and Sinhalese IDPs ethnically cleansed in 1990 by the Tamil Tigers from Jaffna in Sri Lanka.

Alistair Burt: The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) defines internally displaced persons (IDPs) as people who have been forced to flee from their home. In Sri Lanka, the UNHCR works to protect and assist people displaced by the conflict within the country. We understand that anyone is free to approach the UNHCR for assistance and that it prioritises its support on the basis of need, with those in IDP camps accorded the highest priority.

USA

Douglas Alexander: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs whether his Department has had discussions with Mitt Romney and his team about facilitating a meeting with the Prime Minister.

William Hague: British officials in Washington are in contact with Mr Romney's team regarding his proposed visit to London in July and potential meetings with Members of the Government.

Western Sahara

Katy Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs pursuant to the answer of 21 May 2012, Official Report, column 457W, on Western Sahara, whom his Department talks to on matters concerning UK citizens working in the part of Western Sahara not under Moroccan control.

Alistair Burt: Western Sahara is a disputed territory and the UK regards its status as undetermined.
	Should any British nationals require consular assistance, all enquiries should be made to our embassy in Rabat as there is no British diplomatic or consular presence in Western Sahara.

INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Africa

Tony Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what work his Department is undertaking to support the African Union Donor Pledging conference in June 2012; and whether any Ministers in his Department plan to attend the event.

Stephen O'Brien: The UK is committed to ending the food crisis in the Sahel. The UK Government responded early to the food crisis in the Sahel, and UK funds currently support over 400,000 of the most vulnerable people across the region.
	We were informed last week that the planned African Union conference on the Sahel had been put on hold. We are still awaiting details of the rescheduled date, and have yet to receive an agenda. Once these have been issued, we will be in a more appropriate position to consider whether the UK is represented by a Minister or by a suitably qualified official.

Debts Written Off

Gareth Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development how much bad debt was written off by his Department in (a) 2010-11 and (b) 2011-12; and if he will make a statement.

Alan Duncan: During the year ended 31 March 2011 DFID's Annual Report and Accounts wrote off no bad debts, however there was approximately £23 million written off the value of the Department's loan book. These were in relation to bilateral and multilateral loans given by the Department, which were in default and/or which met the criteria for debt cancellation. The £23 million loan write off is in relation to loans between the UK Government and Antigua of £1.7 million, which became eligible for relief when Antigua qualified for relief under the Commonwealth Debt Initiative. In addition funding had been provided to the European Investment Bank to fund loans given by them to both individuals and corporations within developing countries. In the year under review this portfolio required to be written down by £20.6 million, based on loans eligible for relief under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative launched by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. A further write down of £0.7 million was required to a US dollar denominated loan issued by DFID to the International Finance Corporation for its Global Trade Liquidity Programme, to reflect the movement of exchange rates and interest from the date of issue to the date of return.
	The Annual Report and Accounts for the year ended 31 March 2012 are still in draft. These will be finalised in early July, at which point they will be published on the DFID external website.

Democratic Republic of Congo

Ian Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development which areas he visited during his recent visit to the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Stephen O'Brien: The Secretary of State for International Development arrived in Katanga Province, where he visited the provincial capital Lubumbashi, Nkumanwa village and the Tenke-Fungurume mine. The Secretary of State then visited Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Developing Countries: Equality

Tony Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what assessment his Department has made of the effect of the millennium development goals in relation to gender equality.

Andrew Mitchell: DFID's annual report includes information on global progress towards the Millennium Development Goals, as well as progress in DFID's priority countries. Information on global progress can be found in chapter 2, with progress in DFID's priority countries included in chapter 3.
	A link to DFID's annual report for 2010-11 is as follows:
	http://www.dfid.gov.uk/About-us/How-we-measure-progress/Annual-report/

Developing Countries: Family Planning

Caroline Dinenage: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development 
	(1)  what steps his Department is taking to ensure the London summit on family planning improves education, economic empowerment and equality for women and girls;
	(2)  if he will take steps to ensure that the London summit on family planning addresses the need to empower women to enable them to demand and make effective use of contraception;
	(3)  what evidential basis his Department used to set a target for extending family planning services to women in developing countries by 2020; and what assessment his Department has made of the steps required to allow women who are not expected to benefit from the London summit on family planning to access modern family planning services.

Stephen O'Brien: On 11 July, the UK Government and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will host the London summit on family planning, aiming to halve the current number of women and girls in the world’s poorest countries who wish to avoid pregnancy but are not using modern contraception.
	The summit will support the right of girls and women to decide whether, when and how many children to have. It will launch a global movement to enable an additional 120 million women in the world’s poorest 69 countries to use lifesaving family planning information, services and supplies by 2020.
	Access and use of contraception both results from, and contributes to, girls’ and women’s empowerment. Reducing unintended pregnancies leads to fewer girls dropping out of school—up to a quarter of girls in sub-Saharan Africa drop out of school due to unintended pregnancies. The longer children stay in school the higher their lifetime earnings will be, enabling them to lift themselves and their families out of poverty.
	DFID’s work to empower women and girls more broadly, is set out in DFID’s Strategic Vision for Women and Girls, which can be found on our website at:
	www.dfid.gov.uk/stories/features/2011/international-womens-day-2011
	The 120 million additional users goal was derived from analysis of both historical growth and the growth that would be realised in some countries, if they were to achieve their own national objectives as set out in their national development plans.
	While the focus of the summit is on girls and women in the world’s poorest countries (those with a GNI of $2500 GNI per capita or less), it is expected that these efforts will also lead to increased access and utilisation of contraception by women and girls beyond these. For example, efforts to bring new methods to market, to reduce the prices of existing methods and to revitalise interest in international family planning will benefit all women and girls.

Disclosure of Information

Jon Trickett: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development how much his Department spent on the updating of published data in line with the Government's transparency agenda in each month since September 2011.

Alan Duncan: Estimated annual DFID costs for production of its datasets including estimated staff costs for 2011-12 were:
	£146,067 for standard data sets (produced by all Government Departments), averaging £12,172 per month; and
	£63,873 for aid data sets (DFID only), averaging £5,322 per month.

Empty Property

Gareth Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development if he will list the empty or largely empty buildings owned by his Department; and if he will make a statement.

Alan Duncan: DFID does not own any empty buildings.

Empty Property

Gareth Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development how many buildings owned by his Department and the bodies for which he is responsible have been empty for more than two years; and if he will make a statement.

Alan Duncan: DFID does not own any buildings that have been empty for more than two years.

EU Aid

Tony Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development when the Government plans to respond to the International Development Committee Report on European Union Development Assistance.

Stephen O'Brien: The International Development Committee issued its report on European Union Development Assistance on 27 April 2012. The coalition Government will reply by 26 June 2012, the two month deadline set by the Committee.

Fraud

Gareth Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what estimate he has made of the level of (a) procurement and (b) other fraud affecting his Department's spending in (i) 2010-11 and (ii) 2011-12; and if he will make a statement.

Andrew Mitchell: Since October 2010, DFID has reported detected fraud and error on the quarterly data summaries. They are not split into an estimate of procurement and other fraud affecting departmental spend, nor do they take into account undetected fraud loss. The quarterly data summaries are published on DFID's website. DFID's actual losses to fraud are (i) gross £592,216.85, net £115,182.14 in 2010-11; and (ii) gross £3,099,044.27, net £1,178,071.02 in 2011-12. Net figures relate to losses after recovered funds have been deducted from gross totals. Types of fraud include procurement (all encompassing, including tendering process, procurement cards and goods/services not provided as stated), as well as, money/funds stolen and the theft of assets.
	Given the environment in which DFID works and the diversity of its programmes, measuring losses due to fraud is difficult. DFID-commissioned work by the Centre for Counter Fraud Studies at Portsmouth university found that trying to produce an aggregate measure of fraud loss for the Department's budget would be costly, would take some years, and would ultimately only produce a partial picture. Any aggregate assessment that was produced would therefore be of dubious value, given the methodological problems and evidence gaps.
	Given these findings, the Department will focus efforts on ensuring good fraud risk assessment for all of the Department's expenditure, and on mitigation and safeguards. Within the strengthened approach to safeguarding taxpayers' money introduced by the Secretary of State, increased use of forensic audits and spot checks will continue to build our knowledge. As this knowledge base develops, we will keep our approach to fraud loss measurement under review.
	The Department has accelerated its work on the prevention and early identification of fraud. We take a robust approach once fraud has been identified (with effective incident investigation and strengthening of controls to prevent recurrence) and have a good record on recovery of lost funds (61% for 2011-12).

Departmental Staff

Gareth Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what estimate he has made of the number of full-time equivalent staff who will transfer from his Department's workforce to a mutual in (a) 2011-12 and (b) 2012-13; and if he will make a statement.

Alan Duncan: DFID did not transfer any members of its staff to a mutual in 2011-12, and has no plans to do so in 2012-13.

Departmental Staff

Gareth Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what target he has set to reduce headcount across his Department in (a) 2010-11, (b) 2011-12 and (c) 2012-13; and if he will make a statement.

Alan Duncan: During the period 2010-11 to 2011-12 the number of posts in the Department for International Development has increased from 2,284 to 2,399, and we forecast that this figure will further increase to 2,799 by the end of 2012-13. These rises take account of the increased demand for Front Line Delivery advisory posts to meet our requirements to provide more technical knowledge/skill transfer to developing countries overseas.
	However, against that increase in Front Line Delivery posts, our proportion of admin funded posts have decreased from 71.5% to 56% between 2010-11 and 2011-12, and we anticipate that this will further reduce to 50.7% by the end of 2012-13. Beyond that, to the end of our current spending review period, we anticipate further decreases in the proportion of our admin funded posts to 49.4% in financial year 2013-14 and to 48.9% by the end of 2014-15.

Mozambique

Charles Walker: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development how much financial aid his Department has given to Mozambique in each of the last five years; and what categories of projects this aid has funded.

Stephen O'Brien: The Department for International Development (DFID) has provided financial aid to the Government of Mozambique as follows:
	
		
			  £ million 
			 2007-08 61.5 
			 2008-09 57.6 
			 2009-10 61.1 
			 2010-11 79.2 
			 2011-12 77.3 
		
	
	This is broken down by three categories:
	1. General Budget Support (GBS) which is a contribution to the state budget to support the governments' national poverty reduction strategy;
	2. Non-budget financial aid that supports a specific project or outcome, for example increasing tax collection; and
	3. Sector Budget Support (SBS) which is pooled funding within a specific sector, for example support to health service delivery.
	In 2011, the results delivered through DFID's financial aid, included:
	Education: more than 258,000 children supported in primary school, more than 28,000 children supported in lower secondary education, and more than 16,200 children completed primary school;
	Health: more than 2.2 million insecticide treated nets distributed, almost 41,000 women supported to give birth with the help of nurses, midwives or doctors, and more than 83,000 women helped to use modern contraceptive methods;
	Water and Sanitation: more than 56,000 additional people provided with access to clean drinking water, and 34,000 additional people benefiting from access to improved sanitation;
	Social Protection: almost 43,000 people who benefited from cash transfers.
	These results are all attributable to DFID Financial Aid to Mozambique.
	A full breakdown of financial aid by category, programme, and financial year is set out as follows:
	
		
			 £000 
			 Programme (by category) 2007-08 2008-09 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 
			 General Budget Support      
			 Poverty Reduction Budget Support 41,000 42,000 44,000 48,133 47,928 
			       
			 Non-budget Financial Aid      
			 Public Sector Reform 991 500 0 0 0 
			 National Rural Water and Sanitation 0 0 0 2,500 7,500 
			 Regional Infrastructure Programme 0 0 0 0 500 
			 Customs Reform 51 0 0 0 0 
			       
			 Sector Budget Support      
			 Financial Systems Reform 500 1,481 500 0 0 
			 Roads Development 2,475 4,000 2,500 4,350 2,500 
			 Education Sector Support 4,500 0 4,500 11,700 8,650 
			 Health Sector Support 10,400 7,000 7,000 9,000 3,500 
			 Central Revenue Authority Reform 1,039 964 0 0 997 
			 Social Protection 0 1,500 2,000 3,000 5,000 
			 Disaster Management 0 0 66 0 0 
			 BIOFUELS Development (Technical support) 0 146 146 145 0 
			 HIV Prevention and Treatment 500 0 360 360 720 
			 Public Expenditure tracking survey 0 51 0 0 0 
			 Total by year 61,456 57,642 61,072 79,188 77,295

Mozambique

Charles Walker: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development 
	(1)  what technical and financial support his Department has given to Mozambique in support of the development of its mining and mineral sectors;
	(2)  what technical and financial aid his Department has given to assist Mozambique develop its mineral resources in each of the last five years.

Stephen O'Brien: DFID Mozambique's direct support to the Government of Mozambique (GoM) to develop its mining and mineral sectors has been very limited to date. In September 2008, we paid £51,705 for specialist technical assistance to support the Ministry of Mineral Resources (MIREM) to appraise BHP Billington's proposal to develop the Chibuto Corridor Heavy Sands. In October 2011, we commissioned a study, for our own planning purposes, on the potential for job creation and small and medium enterprise (SME) development. This study specifically examined opportunities arising from existing and emerging supply chains in the Mozambican mining sector. This has led DFID Mozambique to begin work with the private sector to involve Mozambican SMEs in mining companies' supply chains.
	DFID is providing £6.5 million (2012-16) in technical and financial support to the Mozambican Ministry of Transport. This will be used to develop well-functioning transport infrastructure along the Beira and Nacala corridors. The corridor development is expected to benefit the mining sector by making coal exports more efficient. Our support will enable GoM to strengthen the regulation of transport, energy and communication infrastructure. This will increase competitiveness. It will also benefit neighbouring countries using Mozambique as a transit route for international trade.
	DFID Mozambique is an active member of the Extractive Industry Working Group of development partners that support the GoM to implement the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) global standards. In May 2010, DFID provided £35,000 to MIREM to support establishment of the EITI in Mozambique.
	The financial and technical support provided by DFID to support the development of Mozambique's mining and mineral sectors over the last five years can be summarised as follows:
	
		
			 Support from DFID Mozambique 
			 £ 
			  2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 
			 Technical support      
			 Support to MIREM for a technical appraisal of the proposal on Chibuto Corridor Heavy Sands (2008) 51,705 — — — — 
			 Support to MIREM to establish the EITI Secretariat (2010) — — 35,000 — — 
			 DFID Mozambique scoping study on private sector-led employment creation and enterprise development in existing and potential supply chains for the Mozambican mining sector (2011) — — — — 12,559 
			       
			 Financial support      
			 Mozambique Regional Gateway Programme — — — — 500,000 
			 Total — — — — 564,264 
		
	
	In addition, DFID Mozambique is actively using the dialogue and performance targets associated with General Budget Support to promote policies that focus on inclusive growth, and the effective use of revenues from the extractive industries.

Nigeria

Bob Blackman: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what discussions his Department has had with senior Nigerian government officials on improving resource allocation in the education sector in that country through accountability and transparency measures.

Andrew Mitchell: DFID officials have regular discussions with senior Nigerian government officials at the Federal and State level on improving resource allocation in the education sector. DFID works in six states (Lagos, Kwara, Enugu, Jigawa, Kano and Kaduna) through its Education Sector Support Programme in Nigeria (ESSPIN) to ensure more transparency and accountability, by helping states with:
	1. Developing their Medium Term Plans.
	2. Managing their finances better and putting in place financial tracking procedures.
	3. Creating School Based Management Committees which hold teachers and local education officials to account.

Departmental Administration Costs

John Redwood: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development how much was spent on the administration of his Department in (a) 2009-10, (b) 2010-11 and (c) 2011-12.

Alan Duncan: DFID's annual report and accounts show the following administration expenditure for the years ended 31 March:
	
		
			  Spend (£000) Percentage of total spend Budget (£000) 
			 2009-10 159,048 2.26 159,950 
			 2010-11 148,202 1.92 151,986 
			 Note: Total spend represents total budget outturn. 
		
	
	The 2011-12 annual report and accounts are currently being finalised and will be available on the Department's external website with effect from 26 June 2012. These will include a note detailing the Department's administration expenditure.
	Like all Government Departments DFID are required to make administration savings of one third of their core administration budget across spending review 2010, which covers the period 2010-11 to 2014-15.

Palestinians

Andy Slaughter: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development how much financial assistance the Government provides to Gaza through (a) humanitarian assistance and (b) relevant budget lines of the Palestinian Authority.

Alan Duncan: The UK provides humanitarian assistance to Gaza through our support to the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) and the World Food Programme (WFP). The UK contributed £30.5 million to UNRWA’s General Fund in 2011, approximately 30% of which was spent on essential services for refugees in Gaza. We will also provide work and an income for 5,300 vulnerable refugees every year between 2011 and 2015 through UNRWA’s back-to-work programme and food vouchers to around 5,750 households (affecting over 37,000 people) in Gaza through our support to the WFP by March 2015.
	From 2011 to 2015, the UK will provide up to £122 million to the Palestinian Authority (PA) to help fund the provision of basic public services and develop Palestinian institutions. Each year, UK aid to the PA will help immunise 2,000 under-fives against measles, support 5,700 children through primary school and provide cash transfers to 7,000 of the poorest people. Around 40% of our support to the PA benefits Gazans.

Sri Lanka

Ian Paisley Jnr: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development whether his Department plans to extend current levels of funding for the de-mining of the Kilinochchi minefield in Sri Lanka for an additional year to enable the completion of the project.

Alan Duncan: The UK Government is strongly committed to mitigating the effects of landmines and other explosive remnants of war. The UK Government's mine action programme will realise our strategy ‘Creating a safer environment: clearing landmines and other explosive remnants of war’ over three years. This programme will benefit at least 450,000 people and clear at least 1,400 hectares of land.
	In Sri Lanka the UK is supporting the HALO Trust to implement its mine action programme. In the Kilinochchi District UK funded teams were allocated 22 areas, or 77,532m(2 )of land, to clear. This land is needed for resettlement and agriculture. After six months of work 14 of these areas have been cleared allowing internally displaced people to begin returning home. Funding in Sri Lanka is committed until November 2013. No funding decisions have been made for 2013 onwards.

Sri Lanka

Ian Paisley Jnr: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development whether his Department has provided funds for the improvement of health care services in Sri Lanka.

Alan Duncan: DFID has provided funds for some health care services through its support to humanitarian agencies providing assistance for victims of armed conflict in Sri Lanka. This programme has now concluded and DFID is not providing further bilateral funding. No funds went through the Government of Sri Lanka.

INDEPENDENT PARLIAMENTARY STANDARDS AUTHORITY COMMITTEE

Allowances

Thomas Docherty: To ask the hon. Member for Broxbourne, representing the Speaker's Committee for the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority, whether the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority Board members who participate in Board meetings via teleconference qualify for the daily attendance allowance.

Charles Walker: holding answer 11 June 2012
	The information requested falls within the responsibility of the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority. I have asked IPSA to reply.
	Letter from Andrew McDonald, dated 1 June 2012
	As Chief Executive of the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority, I have been asked to reply to your Parliamentary Question regarding the remuneration of members of IPSA's Board.
	Members of the Board do not receive an attendance allowance.
	Members of the Board are paid for the time they spend working for IPSA on a pro rata basis. This is broken down by the half hour, at the rate initially approved by the Speaker equivalent to £400 per day.
	Members of the Board are entitled to be paid for the time spent participating in meetings of the Board, whether this is by means of teleconference or in person, on the same basis that they are entitled to be paid for time spent on other IPSA business.
	The amounts paid to members of IPSA's Board in 2011/12 will be published in IPSA's annual report and accounts later this year.

Meetings

Bob Russell: To ask the hon. Member for Broxbourne, representing the Speaker's Committee for the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority, what the dates were of each IPSA Board meeting in the last 12 months; what the names are of those Board members who (a) attended each meeting in person and (b) took part by means of a telephone conference link; and what the names are of those who did not participate in each meeting either in person or via a telephone link.

Charles Walker: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority. I have asked IPSA to reply.
	Letter from Andrew McDonald, dated 11 June 2012
	As Chief Executive of the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority, I have been asked to reply to your Parliamentary Question asking for details of IPSA Board meeting in the last 12 months.
	The approved minutes of ordinary meetings of IPSA's Board, which include the details of those who attended in person and by phone conference, as well as any apologies received, are published routinely on IPSA's website at:
	http://parliamentarystandards.org.uk/transparency/Pages/Minutes.aspx
	In the financial year 2011/12, Board members' aggregated participation in Board meetings was 92%.

HEALTH

Public Health Outcomes

Iain Stewart: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what indicators he plans to put in place to measure improvements in public health by the end of the decade.

Anne Milton: The Public Health Outcomes Framework, 2013-16, includes 66 indicators to measure improvements in public health over four domains: improving the wider determinants of health, health improvement, health protection, and healthcare public health and preventing premature mortality. The list of indicators is available in the published framework on the Department’s website.

Regional Pay Variation

Karl Turner: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what recent representations he has received on regional pay variation in the NHS.

Andrew Lansley: I have not received any such representations.
	There is a formal process for how independent Pay Review Bodies take evidence. The Department, trade unions, NHS Employers and stakeholders are invited to submit evidence directly.
	The Pay Review Body will consider evidence from all parties and make its recommendations in July.

NHS Trusts

Marcus Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps he is taking to improve the financial sustainability of NHS trusts.

Andrew Lansley: We are working directly with all national health service trusts to enable them to achieve Foundation Trust status, in the main by April 2014. To achieve Foundation Trust status will mean NHS trusts have achieved high and sustainable levels of clinical quality and financial governance.

Health and Social Care

Anne McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what representations he has received on delivering health and social care in the community; and if he will make a statement.

Paul Burstow: The Department receives many representations concerning the delivery of health and social care in the community.

Herbal and Homeopathic Medicine

David Tredinnick: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what recent discussions he has had on access to herbal and homeopathic medicine.

Anne Milton: The Secretary of State for Health, my right hon. Friend the Member for South Cambridgeshire (Mr Lansley), has not had any recent discussions on this topic. The Department does not maintain a position on such therapies. It is the responsibility of local national health service organisations to make decisions on such treatments, taking account of safety, clinical and cost-effectiveness and the availability of suitable practitioners.

Alcoholic Drinks: Misuse

Diane Abbott: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the Royal College of Surgeons' conclusions and recommendations on the role of dental teams in identifying and treating alcohol misuse; what steps he has taken in the pilot care pathway to ensure screening for alcohol misuse is carried out; and what steps he has taken to ensure that dental teams in the pilot sites have been trained to deliver alcohol advice.

Simon Burns: The Government's Alcohol Strategy recognises that there are real opportunities for health services to identify those at risk of harm from alcohol and provide advice and support to those who need it. The Government intends to strengthen the approach to prevention in the planned new dental contract. Under the pilot care pathway, dentists are required to carry out an oral health assessment which includes screening for risk factors such as smoking or alcohol consumption and to offer targeted advice when appropriate. The care pathway guidelines given to dentists highlight the extent and health effects of alcohol misuse; outline the recommended alcohol consumption limits and list appropriate specialist services to signpost patients to where the patient reports that they consume alcohol beyond lower-risk drinking guidelines.

Breasts: Plastic Surgery

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the average cost is to the NHS of performing a single operation to remove and replace PIP breast implants; and how much of this cost is made up of the standard fees and associated costs for (a) clinical consultations, (b) pre-operative scanning, (c) medical implants, (d) operating surgeons, (e) anaesthetists and (f) other staff.

Simon Burns: Based on national tariff prices for 2012-13, the average cost to national health service commissioners of removing and replacing PIP breast implants is between £2,500 (without complications or comorbidities) and £3,200 (with complications and/or comorbidities).
	These amounts include a cost of between approximately £2,200 and £2,900 for a hospital spell; and a cost of approximately £300 for pre and post-operative out-patient consultations. The cost of a pre-operative scan (where required) is included within the figure for out-patient consultations but is not separately identifiable. No further breakdown of the total cost is available.

Correspondence

Gareth Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many letters to Ministers in his Department were (a) not answered, (b) not answered within six months and (c) not answered within three months in (i) 2010-11 and (ii) 2011-12; how many such letters were from hon. Members; and if he will make a statement.

Simon Burns: The Cabinet Office, on an annual basis, publishes a report to Parliament on the performance of Departments in replying to hon. Members' correspondence. The report for 2011 was published on 15 March 2012, Official Report, columns 30-33WS. Reports for earlier years are available in the Library of the House.
	In 2011, there were over 60,000 items of ministerial correspondence due for answer by the Department. The Department answered 99% of this correspondence, within the Whitehall standard of 20 working days.
	All correspondence requiring a response that was due for answer in financial year (April to March) 2011-12 was answered. Only one letter requiring a response that was due for answer in 2010-11 was not answered; this was from an hon. Member.
	The following table shows the number of items of correspondence due for answer in 2010-11 and 2011-12 that were not answered within six months and not answered within three months, and how many of which were from hon. Members. These figures represent all ministerial correspondence logged on the Department's central ministerial correspondence database.
	
		
			  Not answered within six months Not answered within three months 
			 Financial year due for answer Total From hon. Members Total From hon. Members 
			 2010-11 1 0 20 1 
			 2011-12 0 0 6 4 
		
	
	In addition, the Department receives correspondence that does not require a response, for example, because it is for another Government Department, because it is for information only, because it is a duplicate of another letter or because one reply has been sent to multiple letters.

Debts Written Off

Gareth Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much bad debt was written off by his Department in (a) 2010-11 and (b) 2011-12; and if he will make a statement.

Simon Burns: The Department has interpreted bad debt written off as meaning claims waived or abandoned and have applied the definition as set out in the Treasury guidance Managing Public Money.
	Debt is only written off after comprehensive credit control methods have been exhausted, or where it was uneconomical to pursue the debt any further.
	The following is taken from the Department's losses and special payments register:
	The total value in 2010-11 was £1,806,697. Most of this relates to customers who have entered liquidation and the Department was unable to recover the debt. The rest is small value claims where it was considered uneconomical to pursue the debt.
	The total value in 2011-12 was £369,897. Most of this relates to customers who have entered liquidation and the Department was unable to recover the debt. The rest is small value claims where it was considered uneconomical to pursue the debt.

Dementia: Research

Julian Huppert: To ask the Secretary of State for Health 
	(1)  how the £66 million of research funding outlined in the Prime Minister's Dementia Challenge will be allocated over the next three years;
	(2)  what assessment he has made of the recent activity of the Prime Minister's Dementia Challenge's Better Research Champion Group; and how many times the group has met since 26 March 2012.

Paul Burstow: The combined value of the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), Medical Research Council and the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) funding for research into dementia will increase from £26.6. million in 2009-10 to an estimated £66.3 million in 2014-15.
	Expenditure on dementia research over the next three years will support a range of research activity.
	Four new NIHR biomedical research units in dementia are being funded from April:
	
		
			 NHS organisation University partner 
			 Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust University of Cambridge 
			 Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust Newcastle University 
			 South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust King's College London Institute of Psychiatry 
			 University College London Hospitals University College London 
		
	
	These research units and NIHR biomedical research centres which include dementia themed research will share their considerable resources and world leading expertise to improve treatment and care.
	Projects will be funded resulting from the recent NIHR themed call in dementia. The participating programmes are:
	Efficacy and Mechanism Evaluation
	Health Services Research
	Health Technology Assessment
	Programme Grants for Applied Research
	Public Health Research
	Research for Patient Benefit
	Service Delivery and Organisation.
	The ESRC and NIHR will be working together to support an initiative with up to £13 million funding available for social science research on dementia. The call for proposals will open in the week commencing 9 July and will fund national or international social science research in dementia which can make a significant contribution to scientific, economic and social impact.
	Additional work will be supported by the funders depending on the volume and quality of applications received.
	Three meetings of the Better Research Champion Group was held between June and December 2012 and the frequency of meetings will be reviewed thereafter. The first meeting was held on 8 June 2012 and brought together some of the world's leading dementia scientists to strengthen research co-ordination and engagement, spanning basic research and translational research. The group will address the challenge of co-ordination and engagement, focusing on the actions needed to strengthen partnerships between research funders, research charities, universities, national health service trusts, providers and the life science industry.

Diabetes

Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps his Department is taking to ensure that its cost data captures the full costs of diabetes nationally.

Paul Burstow: The main source of cost data in the national health service by disease is programme budgeting (PB) data. Commissioner level programme budgeting data is published annually in the form of a benchmarking tool that enables commissioners to identify:
	how they spend their allocation over 23 disease categories and their respective subcategories. Diabetes is one of the 23 categories;
	how their disease category level expenditure is split across 12 care settings (this is new from 2010-11); and
	how their expenditure distribution pattern compares with other commissioners nationally, locally or with similar characteristics.
	The latest version of the Programme Budgeting PCT Benchmarking Tool contains estimates of expenditure for the 2010-11 financial year.
	www.dh.gov.uk/en/Managingyourorganisation/Financeandplanning/Programmebudgeting/DH_075743
	The PB data allocates all relevant NHS expenditure to a disease category. Disease-based costings depend on diagnostic codes. PB data are based on the use of only the primary diagnostic code. However patients can have multiple diagnostic codes for each hospital admission. This is particularly the case for patients with co-morbidities, e.g. patients with diabetes. Alternative approaches to the use of diagnostic codes will produce a range of cost estimates. Each approach has its merits, depending on the question being addressed.
	For example, data are available from hospital episode statistics, from which the fuller estimates of secondary care costs incurred in care for diabetes patients can readily be derived, for appraisal of specific policy options.
	On the other hand, unlimited use of secondary diagnostic codes for diabetes could spuriously attribute to diabetes costs that would have been incurred irrespective of that condition.

Diabetes

Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps his Department is taking to ensure standards in (a) patient education, (b) diabetes training for NHS staff and (c) provision of diabetes specialist nurses are consistently high.

Paul Burstow: Local national health service organisations are responsible for providing high quality and safe diabetes services appropriate to their local populations, including providing information and education to people with diabetes about their condition and how to manage it. The NHS Operating Framework 2011-12 specifically stated that primary care trusts should commission appropriate structured education to support all people with diabetes. The Best Practice Tariff for paediatric diabetes introduced in April 2012 includes a requirement for advice, including education, to be available to patients and their families.
	“Liberating the NHS: Developing the Healthcare Workforce from Design to Delivery” states that those working in health services need to be well supported to attain the right professional and clinical skills. A copy has already been placed in the Library.
	NHS employers, in consultation with patients, will have greater autonomy and accountability for planning and developing their workforce. Accountability for training is with providers supported by health care professionals who understand the local needs of their workforce, and nationally with Health Education England. It is therefore local health care organisations, with their knowledge of the needs of their local populations, that are best placed to determine the workforce required to deliver safe patient care within their available resources.

Diabetes

Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps his Department is taking to produce high-quality cost data on local diabetes services.

Paul Burstow: The main source of cost data in the national health service by disease is programme budgeting data. Commissioner level programme budgeting data is published annually in the form of a benchmarking tool that enables commissioners to identify:
	how they spend their allocation over 23 disease categories and their respective subcategories; diabetes is one of these categories; and
	how their expenditure distribution pattern compares with other commissioners nationally, locally or with similar characteristics.
	The programme budgeting data allocate all relevant NHS expenditure to a disease category (in this case diabetes).
	The latest version of the Programme Budgeting PCT Benchmarking Tool contains estimates of expenditure for the 2010-11 financial year and is available on:
	www.dh.gov.uk/en/Managingyourorganisation/Financeandplanning/Programmebudgeting/DH_075743
	The National Diabetes Information Service and the NHS Information Centre provide support to the NHS at a local and national level providing information to aid decision making and prioritising care for people with diabetes.

Disclosure of Information

Jon Trickett: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much his Department spent on the updating of published data in line with the Government's transparency agenda in each month since September 2011.

Simon Burns: These costs are not collected centrally. The Department's commitments to release and publish health and social care data in support of the transparency agenda are chiefly delivered through the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) while the Department releases corporate data about its own performance. In general the Department is making data available that was already collected and regularly updated, but releasing it in a form that enables other organisations and the public to analyse and use it. This is covered by normal running costs. The HSCIC adopts a "publish by default" approach to its statistical publications, whereby the consideration of release issues and the release of the data, underpinning a statistical publication occurs as part of the publication process. As such, this is an intrinsic part of their role and they do not separate out the costs attributable to the direct release of such data.
	An exception is in the case of prescribing data, which was first released in December 2011, and which requires additional processing to put it in an accessible format. The HSCIC estimates that the cost of updating for a full year would be £100,000.

Empty Property

Gareth Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Health 
	(1)  if he will list the empty or largely empty buildings owned by his Department; and if he will make a statement;
	(2)  how many buildings owned by his Department and the bodies for which he is responsible have been empty for more than two years; and if he will make a statement.

Simon Burns: The following buildings owned by the Department and its sponsored bodies are currently empty.
	
		
			 Property Current Position 
			 4-6 Heathway, Seaham Marketed and offer accepted 
			 71 Hill Top Road, Oxford Marketed and offer accepted 
			 Warwick Cottage, Melton Mowbray War Memorial Hospital, Melton Mowbray Remarketed and offer accepted subject to planning. Joint sale with the NHS Trust who owns the remainder of the hospital site 
			 Part Little Plumstead , Little Plumstead, Norwich Remarketing following previous abortive sale 
			 Part Kingsley Green (formerly Harperbury Hospital)/ Radlett Discussions with local planning, authority prior to marketing 
			 Old Elvet, Green Lane, Durham Marketed and offer accepted 
		
	
	Little Plumstead, Kingsley Green and Old Elvet have been empty for more than two years. Old Elvet is owned by the NHS Business Services Authority (an arm's length body of the Department).

Freud Communications

Diane Abbott: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the value is of his Department's communications contract with Freud Communications; for how long the contract will last; what information his Department collects on other clients of Freud Communications; and what processes are in place to prevent any conflict of interest from arising.

Simon Burns: The total value of the Consumer Engagement Services contract with Freud Communications is £1,020,000 including an element of agreed performance payments.
	The following table shows the Department's last four financial years spend with public relations companies.
	
		
			 Financial year Amount (£) 
			 2007-08 6,460,000 
			 2008-09 9,500,000 
			 2009-10 (1)4,310,000 
			 2010-11 (1)550,000 
			 (1) Provisional 
		
	
	All amounts rounded up to the nearest £10,000 and are excluding VAT.
	The above expenditure includes both fees and costs i.e. fees and expenses to cover time worked by agency staff and costs incurred during the work. Costs may include items such as: design, printing, venue hire, photography, travel and postage. However, it is not possible to extract a more detailed breakdown from Department of Health's financial reporting system.
	The contract was awarded in January 2012 and is initially for one year.
	Disclosure and the ongoing management of any conflict of interest is covered by the Department's tender award processes and contract management procedures.

Gender Recognition

Sandra Osborne: To ask the Secretary of State for Health 
	(1)  what the effect will be on the level of funding for transgender treatment facilities of (a) the efficiency initiative to save £20 billion in the NHS by 2015 and (b) implementation of NHS reforms;
	(2)  what steps he is taking to ensure that funding arrangements enable patients with gender dysphoria to receive prompt and effective treatment from the point of presentation at all levels of healthcare provision;
	(3)  what plans he has to tackle inequality of treatment for patients seeking treatment for gender dysphoria;
	(4)  what plans he has to improve access to transgender and gender reassignment services.

Paul Burstow: Decisions about funding for gender reassignment services and the provision of treatment are not for central Government but are currently made by primary care trusts (PCTs) in the light of local priorities and needs.
	PCTs are being abolished and following the passing of the Health and Social Care Act, the NHS Commissioning Board Authority is now responsible for the transition of specialised commissioning. Arrangements are being put in place to achieve this and full details and updates will be published in due course.
	From April 2013, the NHS Commissioning Board will come fully into being. We anticipate that the NHS Commissioning Board will commission and fund gender reassignment services and will work towards a position where patients can have improved access to services across the country.
	To prepare for these changes, a Clinical Reference Group for Gender is being formed to develop the scope, policy, specification and quality measures for gender dysphoria services and make recommendations to the NHS Commissioning Board Authority.
	As a public sector organisation, the national health service must have due regard to the Equality Duty which covers nine protected characteristics, including gender reassignment.

Health Services: Harlow

Robert Halfon: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will estimate the change in the level of spending on NHS services in Harlow constituency since May 2010.

Simon Burns: The total expenditure of West Essex Primary Care Trust (PCT), which covers Harlow, was £422 million in 2009-10 and rose to over £429 million in 2010-11. These are the latest available figures on spending. However, we are increasing national health service funding in each year of this Parliament. West Essex PCT’s funding has increased by £24 million since 2011-12.

Homeopathy

Bill Esterson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment he has made of the benefits of homeopathy and its role in healthcare treatment.

Anne Milton: The Department does not maintain a position on any particular complementary or alternative therapy including homeopathy. It is the responsibility of local national health service organisations to make decisions on the commissioning and funding of such treatments, taking into account their safety and clinical and cost-effectiveness and the availability of suitably qualified/regulated practitioners.
	The Government response to the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee report on homeopathy was published on 26 July 2010 and can be accessed at:
	www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/PublicationsPolicyAndGuidance/DH_117810

Hospitals

Dave Watts: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to the answer of 15 May 2012, Official Report, column 77W, on hospitals, how many other consultants' financial review reports have been carried out by the Department or the Trust; and what the costs were of any other such reviews in the last three years.

Simon Burns: The answer of 15 May 2012, Official Report, column 77W, provided the information requested on how many consultants' financial review reports pertaining to St Helen's and Knowsley Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust were carried out by the Department or the Trust and the cost of these reviews, covering the last three years.
	Information on consultants' financial reviews carried out by the St Helen's and Knowsley Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust is not held centrally but can be obtained from the Trust directly.

Hospitals: Infectious Diseases

Diane Abbott: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will assess the effectiveness of the regulation of the hand sanitiser industry.

Simon Burns: Hand sanitisers are not classed as a medicine or medical product and are therefore not regulated by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency.

Human Papillomavirus: Vaccination

Pamela Nash: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will consider taking steps to ensure that men who have sex with men are vaccinated against the human papillomavirus.

Anne Milton: The aim of the national human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination programme is to prevent cervical cancer in women. The best way to do this is to vaccinate girls and young women.
	The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), an independent expert committee, keeps the eligibility criteria of all vaccination programmes under review. Research is under way to support a future assessment by JCVI of HPV vaccination of men who have sex with men.

Medical Equipment

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what processes are in place to monitor and publicly report on the quality and safety of (a) breast implants and (b) pacemakers approved for use in the UK.

Simon Burns: The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) monitors and reports on the quality and safety of all medical devices (including breast implants and pacemakers), as part of its post-market surveillance role. This involves the processing and resolving of adverse incident reports from patients and clinicians (mainly through its adverse incident centre), or from manufacturers, who are legally required to report incidents which have caused or have the potential to cause death or serious injury. The MHRA also oversees the performance of notified bodies in the United Kingdom, who have specific responsibilities for ensuring that manufacturers of medical devices continue to comply with the requirements of the device’s CE mark and ensure that there are systems in place for monitoring the long-term safety and performance of the device. The MHRA is also closely involved with other regulators across Europe in sharing information about the safety of medical devices on the market.
	The MHRA publishes medical device alerts when specifically needed to provide safety information, and also from time to time publishes reports and guidance, such as device bulletins, giving wider advice and information on medical devices.
	We accept that these processes need further strengthening, as we made clear in the report “Poly Implant Prothèse silicone breast implants: Review of the actions of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency and the Department of Health” published on 14 May by the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health, my noble Friend (Earl Howe), a copy of which has already been placed in the Library. The MHRA will be acting quickly to respond to the specific recommendations from the review to improve the reporting of adverse incidents and the communication of relevant guidance to patients and clinicians.

Mental Illness

Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment he has made of (a) stress and (b) mental illness levels in (i) the long-term unemployed and (ii) those who work more than 50 hours a week.

Paul Burstow: The Department has made no assessment of stress or mental illness levels among the long-term unemployed or those who work more than 50 hours a week.

NHS: Information and Communications Technology

Steven Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what recent assessment he has made of the procurement of IT equipment in the NHS.

Simon Burns: The Department does not undertake national procurement for information technology (IT) equipment in the national health service. The procurement of such IT equipment lies with each local NHS trust.
	However, the Department did launch a new procurement strategy called the NHS Standards of Procurement on 28 May 2012, which is designed to help trusts ensure their procurement is effective, including the use of national contracts such as those provided by the Government Procurement Service, which does include IT equipment.

NHS: Negligence

Chris Skidmore: To ask the Secretary of State for Health 
	(1)  how many clinical negligence claims involving amputation were made in each year since 1997-98 in each NHS trust; and what the monetary value was of payments made against such claims in each year;
	(2)  how many clinical negligence claims involving blindness were made in each year since 1997-98 in each NHS trust; and what the monetary value was of payments made against such claims in each year;
	(3)  how many clinical negligence claims involving brain damage were made in each year since 1997-98 in each NHS trust; and what the monetary value was of payments made against such claims in each year;
	(4)  how many clinical negligence claims involving cosmetic disfigurement were made in each year since 1997-98 in each NHS trust; and what the monetary value was of payments made against such claims in each year;
	(5)  how many clinical negligence claims involving HIV were made in each NHS trust in each year since 1997-98; and what the monetary value was of payments made against such claims in each year.

Simon Burns: The data requested are provided in the following tables and relate only to claims that were defended by the NHS Litigation Authority.
	Claims numbers will include claims that have settled with damages, settled without damages and unsettled claims. Damages paid data relate to claims where some settlement has been reached. Outstanding damages have also been included, for example where settlements have agreed for payments to be made in future years.
	The NHS Litigation Authority database has a descriptor “Brain damage”, this has been used to pull out claims for brain damage, there are however other descriptors e.g. Cerebral Palsy, Stroke, these are however not included in the Brain Damage total.
	Table to show the number of clinical negligence claims involving: Amputation and Blindness made in each year since 1997-98 in each NHS trust; and what the monetary value was of payments made against such claims in each year.
	
		
			  Amputation Blindness 
			  Number of claims received Total paid (£) Number of claims received Total paid (£) 
			 1997-98 49 6,503,882 38 9,104,694 
			 1998-99 85 11,545,727 88 19,409,927 
			 1999-2000 93 19,561,356 77 21,806,468 
			 2000-01 111 18,150,481 67 17,169,777 
			 2001-02 102 16,164,831 65 8,701,837 
			 2002-03 103 16,686,098 68 6,731,388 
			 2003-04 99 13,679,202 55 10,420,903 
			 2004-05 96 16,398,912 54 10,508,897 
			 2005-06 135 40,780,025 63 7,009,745 
			 2006-07 103 23,536,367 40 5,343,430 
			 2007-08 120 21,426,188 39 4,510,736 
			 2008-09 146 53,173,545 40 5,429,430 
			 2009-10 124 23,158,256 59 8,809,926 
			 2010-11 134 18,049,609 56 2,331,177 
		
	
	Table to show the number of clinical negligence claims involving: Brain damage and Cosmetic disfigurement made in each year since 1997-98 in each NHS trust; and what the monetary value was of payments made against such claims in each year.
	
		
			  Brain damage Cosmetic disfigurement 
			  Number of claims received Total paid (£) Number of claims received Total paid (£) 
			 1997-98 124 59,403,083 9 194,179 
			 1998-99 5 177,522 15 281,804 
			 1999-2000 365 143,902,546 5 177,522 
			 2000-01 404 135,146,212 26 656,024 
			 2001-02 335 127,999,139 35 977,583 
			 2002-03 246 85,328,284 67 1,589,498 
			 2003-04 205 98,265,408 42 888,125 
			 2004-05 200 87,189,868 60 1,428,326 
			 2005-06 152 71,959,692 45 1,557,962 
			 2006-07 140 54,327,424 37 2,001,003 
			 2007-08 153 57,300,417 57 3,967,114 
			 2008-09 146 53,173,545 65 3,030,132 
			 2009-10 170 32,901,569 44 1,087,055 
			 2010-11 215 11,683,162 46 786,003 
		
	
	Table to show the number of clinical negligence claims involving HIV made in each year since 1997-98 in each NHS trust; and what the monetary value was of payments made against such claims in each year.
	
		
			 HIV 
			  Number of claims received Total paid (£) 
			 1997-98 0 0 
			 1998-99 0 0 
			 1999-2000 0 0 
			 2000-01 0 0 
			 2001-02 0 0 
			 2002-03 0 0 
			 2003-04 1 632,638 
			 2004-05 0 0 
			 2005-06 0 0 
			 2006-07 0 0 
			 2007-08 0 0 
			 2008-09 0 0 
			 2009-10 0 0 
			 2010-11 0 0

NHS: Negligence

Chris Skidmore: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many clinical negligence cases were brought by NHS patients arising from treatment in (a) NHS foundation trusts, (b) all other NHS trusts and (c) non-NHS hospitals and treatment centres in the last two financial years for which figures are available; and how much was paid in compensation resulting from these claims.

Simon Burns: The data requested are provided in the following tables and relate only to claims that were defended by the NHS Litigation Authority.
	Claim numbers will include claims that have settled with damages, settled without damages and unsettled claims. Damages paid data relate to claims where some settlement has been reached. Outstanding damages have also been included, for example where settlements have agreed for payments to be made in future years.
	
		
			 Table 1: Claim data for 2009-10 
			 Type of health service provider Number of claims received Damages paid (£) Estimated outstanding damages (£) Total estimated damages (£) 
			 NHS foundation trust 3,253 107,388,872 333,859,470 441,251,595 
			 NHS trust 2,886 129,931,007 399,015,571 528,946,577 
			 Non-NHS 73 2,729,195 2,820,000 5,549,195 
			 Total 6,212 240,049,074 735,695,041 975,747,368 
			 Source: NHS Litigation Authority 
		
	
	
		
			 Table 2: Claim data for 2010-11 
			 Type of health service provider Number of claims received Damages paid (£) Estimated outstanding damages (£) Total estimated damages (£) 
			 NHS foundation trust 4,238 71,612,241 584,303,336 655,915,577 
			 NHS trust 3,540 66,898,943 548,763,708 615,662,651 
			 Non-NHS 127 2,662,652 5,568,186 8,230,838 
			 Total 7,905 141,173,836 1,138,635,230 1,279,809,066 
			 Source: NHS Litigation Authority

NHS: Negligence

Chris Skidmore: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many clinical negligence proceedings have been brought against the NHS in each financial year since 1997-98; to which types of adverse incident each related; and what the total cost to the NHS was for each type of adverse incident in each year.

Simon Burns: The information requested has been placed in the Library.
	The tables show the total payments made to date for clinical claims notified each year to the NHS Litigation Authority (NHSLA). Incidents to which the claims relate may have occurred several years prior to the NHSLA being notified. The tables do not contain data where the NHSLA was not responsible for defending the claim ie claims generally made against practitioners in primary care. Excess levels were also operated for the Existing Liabilities Scheme until April 2001 and for the Clinical Negligence Scheme for Trusts (CNST) until April 2002, with national health service bodies at that time dealing with claims below the excess level. They were not required to notify these claims to the NHSLA. Data therefore do not represent a complete picture for the NHS.
	Claims data have been sorted by using the injuries recorded in the 'Injury 1' field of the NHSLA's claims database. Injury 1 does not hold any significance for the claim, and other injuries that form part of the claim may have a greater material impact on the value of the claim.
	Where costs have been incurred, actual payments may have been made in years subsequent to when the claim was notified to the NHSLA. Additionally, some claims may have outstanding payments yet to be made against the claim, for example where annual payments have been agreed as part of a structured settlement.

Nursing and Midwifery Council

William Bain: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what discussions he has had with the Nursing and Midwifery Council on the proposed increase in registration fees for their members in practice.

Anne Milton: I met with the chair and chief executive of the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) on 10 May 2012. In this meeting, the NMC advised of their intention to consult on raising its registrant fees.
	We have publicly made it clear to all the health regulators that we would not expect to see rises in registration fees unless an increase is essential to fulfil their statutory duties.
	The Department expects the NMC to explore all possible options to avoid a fee increase. The NMC needs to justify any increase in fees to us and their registrants.

Pay

Gareth Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many staff working for his Department, its executive agencies and non-departmental public bodies are employed through off-payroll engagements costing less than £58,200 per annum; and if he will make a statement.

Simon Burns: This information is not held centrally and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
	The Department's systems can provide total numbers of all off-payroll engagements within the Department but not by cost, as data on costs per contract are not maintained centrally. A data collection exercise would be required to gather this information for the Department and its non-departmental public bodies and agency, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency.
	An extensive data collection exercise was carried out within the Department and its non-departmental public bodies and agency as part of the HM Treasury review of tax arrangements for senior public sector appointees. Data on off-payroll engagements costing over £58,200 per annum was submitted to HM Treasury and published on the Department's website on 23 May 2012 at:
	www.dh.gov.uk/health/2012/05/dh-tax-arrangements
	This data reports the position at 31 January 2012.

Public Expenditure

Jeremy Lefroy: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what his Department’s expenditure was in each of the last 36 months; and what steps he is taking to avoid an annual underspend.

Simon Burns: The expenditure of the Department for the year 2009-10 and 2010-11 is contained in the published 2010-11 annual report and accounts (HC1011) which has already been placed in the Library. It is also available on the Department’s website at:
	www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/AnnualReports
	HM Treasury published the February 2012 forecast out-turn for 2011-12 for all Government Departments in its 2012 Budget publication. For the Department, this was a forecast underspend of around £0.9 billion, of which, around £0.4 billion was transferred to 2012-13 as part of the HM Treasury Budget Exchange Scheme. Underspends are inevitable given that the Department’s position reflects the consolidated spending of over 400 bodies but as far as possible the Department tries to ensure that spending on centrally held budgets is maximised while at the same time ensures value for money.
	The Department’s 2011-12 year-end position is not yet finalised. HM Treasury will provide an update on the expenditure forecasts of all Government Departments in July in the 2012 Public Expenditure Statistical Analysis.

Publications

Jonathan Ashworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many (a) circulars and (b) consultation documents were issued by his Department in each of the last two years.

Simon Burns: The Department does not issue circulars to the national health service or local authorities. It provides guidance to the NHS and local authority chief executives through an e-mail bulletin called The Week, which brings together latest news, consultations and events for chief executives and their teams. It highlights areas for action and includes links to resources and more information.
	The Department has launched 45 public consultations between 1 May 2010-30 April 2012.

DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER

Constituencies

Chris Ruane: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister for what reason his proposed changes to the size of parliamentary constituencies are based on the number of registered voters rather than the number of potential registered voters.

Mark Harper: The electoral register has been the basis for parliamentary boundary reviews since the creation of the independent Boundary Commissions. Equally-weighted votes is a fundamental democratic principle. For this to be the case, there must be broad equality in the number of registered electors in each constituency. Furthermore, basing boundary reviews on population figures would mean using estimates derived from census data. The Government does not believe that this would provide a better basis for a boundary review than using the annually updated electoral register.

Correspondence

Gareth Thomas: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister how many letters to Ministers in his Department were (a) not answered, (b) not answered within six months and (c) not answered within three months in (i) 2010-11 and (ii) 2011-12; how many such letters were from hon. Members; and if he will make a statement.

Nicholas Clegg: My Office has responded to over 16,300 letters addressed to me since 12 May 2010. We aim to reply to all correspondence swiftly.

Public Expenditure

Jeremy Lefroy: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister if he will publish a statement of his Office's expenditure in each of the last 36 months; and what steps he is taking to avoid an annual underspend.

Nicholas Clegg: For the purposes of corporate administration and financial management, my office is an integral part of the Cabinet Office. I refer the hon. Member to the answer given by the Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General on 23 May 2012, Official Report, column 768-9W).

DEFENCE

Afghanistan

David Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what progress was made on building a stable Afghanistan at the recent NATO Summit in Chicago.

Philip Hammond: At the NATO Summit in Chicago, the international community reaffirmed its enduring support to Afghanistan beyond the end of security transition in 2014. NATO’s military commanders set out the progress in the campaign—attacks by insurgents are down and transition to Afghan control is on track. NATO’s Strategic Plan for Afghanistan was agreed and plans were discussed for the future funding of the Afghan national security forces. The UK is pledging £70 million a year and total commitments to date are close to $l billion. Our aim is a stable Afghanistan that is able to manage its own security and that can prevent international terrorists, such as al-Qaeda, returning and posing a threat to our security. The NATO summit sends a clear message to the Afghan people that we will not abandon them, and to the insurgents that they cannot wait us out.

Aircraft Carriers

Jim Murphy: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what the total cost was of testing the US Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System.

Peter Luff: holding answer 24 May 2012
	The final cost of the UK contribution to the U.S-led EMALS test programme is still to be finalised.

Aircraft Carriers

Jim Murphy: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what items his Department has ordered relating exclusively to the conversion of the aircraft carrier to a Catapult Assisted Take Off Barrier Arrested Recovery configuration since May 2010; and what the value was of each item.

Peter Luff: holding answer 11 June 2012
	I refer the right hon. Member to the answer I gave on 23 May 2012, Official Report, column 716W, to the hon. Member for North Durham (Mr Jones).

Armed Forces: Domestic Violence

Kelvin Hopkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence 
	(1)  what work has been done to identify the extent of domestic abuse in military quarters;
	(2)  what research his Department has commissioned on the role that alcohol plays in domestic abuse in military quarters.

Andrew Robathan: The focus of our work, to date, on domestic abuse in the armed forces and service community has been on raising awareness about domestic abuse and advice on what to do if it is occurring.
	The chain of command has an overarching responsibility to ensure that appropriately trained support staff are available. A domestic abuse protocol is in place between the Service Police and the Hampshire Constabulary that sets out arrangements for handling domestic abuse incidents, with reported cases recorded on the civil police record management system. Consideration is currently being given to rolling out similar protocols for all garrison areas.
	The Kings Centre for Military Health Research has conducted some research looking at the levels of domestic violence in military populations following homecoming from a deployment, as well as the role of alcohol misuse. Their findings will be published in due course.

Armed Forces: Mental Health Services

Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what changes have been implemented as a result of the recommendations of Dr Andrew Murrison's independent study into the provision of mental health support and services to the armed forces and ex-service personnel.

Andrew Robathan: The Ministry of Defence takes the issue of mental health very seriously and, together with colleagues from the Department of Health, have implemented the following recommendations from Dr Murrison's 'Fighting Fit' report.
	The main data collection phase of the three-year study, conducted with King's College London, into the possible use of a screening tool for mental health issues, is under way.
	Enhanced Mental Health Assessments, which are to be included as part of routine service medical examinations and discharge medicals, are being rolled out on a regional basis.
	Policy has been changed to allow service personnel who have mental health issues while serving (or identified at the release medical) to continue to access the military Departments of Community Mental Health for up to six months after discharge.
	A 12 month evaluation of the 'Big White Wall', an online early intervention portal for service personnel, their families and veterans, is ongoing and is due to report in autumn 2012 for service personnel. A decision on whether to continue with the service element will be taken by the end of this year. For veterans and families, the Minister of State, Department of Health, my right hon. Friend the Member for Chelmsford (Mr Burns), announced in May 2012 that the Big White Wall service would be extended to run until 2015. The veterans and families package will be wholly funded by the Department of Health.
	A 24-hour helpline for veterans and their families, run by Rethink in partnership with Combat Stress, has been up and running since March 2011. In March 2012 the Minister of State, Department of Health, my right hon. Friend the Member for Chelmsford (Mr Burns), announced the continuation of the helpline for the financial year 2012-13. This will be wholly funded by the Department of Health.
	A Veterans Information Service that will contact ex-service personnel 12 months after they leave the armed forces to offer support and give information is due to be launched in summer 2012.
	There has been an uplift in the number of mental health professionals conducting veterans outreach work, from 15 to 30. In addition, the number of professionals working for Combat Stress in partnership with the NHS takes this total to nearer 50. Plans are in place to establish a national veterans' mental health clinical network.
	It has been agreed that the Medical Assessment Programme (MAP) at St Thomas' Hospital and the Reserves Mental Health Programme (RMHP) will continue in their assessment role accepting referrals and self-referrals. The MAP will move to the Reinforcements Training and Mobilisation Centre (RMTC) at Chilwell, Nottinghamshire in October 2012.
	The e-learning veterans' health package designed for GPs went live in late summer 2011.

Armed Forces: Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

Kelvin Hopkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what steps he is taking to reduce the incidence of post traumatic stress disorder amongst serving and former soldiers.

Andrew Robathan: The Ministry of Defence (MOD) takes the issue of mental health very seriously, and we recognise that operational deployments will inevitably expose personnel to stressful experiences. The psychological welfare of troops (which covers general wellbeing as well as mental health) is a fundamental chain of command responsibility, and personnel benefit greatly, in terms of mental health, by being within well-led units with good support from their colleagues.
	Measures are in place to increase awareness at all levels and to mitigate the development of operational stresses. Primary preventative measures include selection for fitness at recruitment, provision of good leadership, and robust training for all personnel. Secondary preventative measures include psycho-education, use of trauma risk management (TRiM), and post-operational stress management, all of which aim at early detection of problems. Unit-based non-healthcare professionals such as chaplains, TRiM practitioners and welfare staff also have a vital role in supporting the chain of command in maintaining a good state of mental health amongst unit personnel and in signposting those in need of treatment to the Defence Medical Services. The families of returning personnel are also offered advice on the possible after-effects of an operational deployment.
	Another key aim is to reduce the stigma that is sometimes attached to mental illness, which is an issue in the civilian world as well as the armed forces. This is being actively addressed through such programmes as the Army's “'Don't Bottle It Up” campaign, and in the deployment briefings provided to personnel and their families. By encouraging people to come forward as soon as they begin to feel ill, we can provide treatment at an early stage and hopefully prevent the illness developing further or recurring at a later date, including after they have left the armed forces.
	Personnel leaving the armed forces are given advice on seeking help at an early stage if they have concerns about their mental health. The MOD and the Department of Health are working together to improve the mental health care provided to ex-service personnel. Among key preventative measures are the launch in March 2011 of a professional 24-hour helpline for current and ex-service personnel and their families, and the current trial of use by the service community of the Big White Wall, an online early intervention service for people in psychological distress.

Armed Forces: Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

Kelvin Hopkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what steps he has taken to monitor the incidence of post traumatic stress disorder amongst serving and former soldiers.

Andrew Robathan: The Defence Analytical Services and Advice (DASA) publishes the “UK Armed Forces Mental Health Report” four times a year, which includes the number of patients attending a Ministry of Defence Department of Community Mental Health (DCMH) who were initially assessed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The latest report, for the period 1 October to 31 December 2011, was published on 3 April 2012, and can be found on the DASA website:
	www.dasa.mod.uk
	under “Other Publications” and “Health/Medical Statistics”.
	Ex-service personnel who require treatment for PTSD will receive it through their local NHS provider, and no central record is maintained of the numbers diagnosed with the condition. However, we continue to work closely with the Department of Health to improve the whole range of mental healthcare available to them.

Armed Forces: Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

Kelvin Hopkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what estimate he has made of how many soldiers who are currently on operational duties suffer from post traumatic stress disorder; and what measures he has put in place to offer them assistance.

Andrew Robathan: The Ministry of Defence takes the issue of mental health very seriously, and we will continue to offer a high standard of treatment and care to those who need it. In Afghanistan, a Field Mental Health Team (FMHT) provides assessment and treatment for our deployed personnel. Many of those who are assessed as having a mental disorder will be successfully treated by the FMHT, although those with post traumatic stress disorder (one of the most severe and uncommon disorders) would normally be removed from operational duties and returned to the UK for treatment.
	The UK Armed Forces Mental Health Report Annual Summary includes data on the presenting complaints of UK armed forces personnel to the FMHT in Afghanistan. This shows that in 2010 (the most recent annual summary available), 113 persons were assessed with a form of mental disorder. Also during 2010, 30 persons were aeromedically evacuated back to the UK from Afghanistan for psychiatric reasons. Of these, 22 were described as “mildly disturbed psychiatric patients”, with the other eight being classed as either “intermediate” or “severe”.
	Service personnel with post traumatic stress disorder, including those returned to the UK from operational deployment, will normally be referred to and treated in one of our 15 military Departments of Community Mental Health (plus centres overseas). These offer a wide range of psychiatric and psychological treatments, including medication, psychological therapies, and environmental adjustment where appropriate. In-patient care, when necessary, is provided in specialised psychiatric units under contract with the NHS.

Armed Forces: Redundancy

Jim Murphy: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many armed forces personnel who have served in Afghanistan have been made redundant to date.

Andrew Robathan: holding answer 11 June 2012
	As at 31 March 2012, a total of 1,650 UK armed forces personnel have left under the Tranche 1 of the Armed Forces Redundancy Programme. Some 520 of these have been identified as having deployed to Afghanistan since 2001 with 510 being applicants.

Armed Forces: Training

Angus Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will estimate the cost to the public purse of a recruit completing Phase 2 and 3 training in the (a) Royal Armoured Corps (b) Infantry, (c) Army Air Corps, (d) Royal Artillery, (e) Royal Engineers, (f) Royal Signals, (g) Royal Logistic Corps, (h) Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, (i) Royal Army Medical Corps, (j) Adjutant General Corps, (k) Intelligence Corps and (l) Brigade of Gurkhas.

Nick Harvey: Training costs for Phase 2 trade training for soldiers within each Corps or Cap Badge varies considerably depending on the role they are training for (of which there are over 220 in the Army), the content of the training, the number of recruits, the length of the training and the pass rates on specific courses. The following table shows the estimated lowest and highest cost per soldier recruit for each Corps undertaking Phase 2 trade training, excluding additional costs such as housing, infrastructure and utility costs.
	
		
			 Corps/Cap Badge Estimated range of cost per soldier recruit for Phase 2 trade training 
			 Royal Armoured Corps £31,520 to £67,090 
			 Infantry—Phase 2 (includes Infantry Battle School) £17,420 to £29,000 
			 Army Air Corps (1)£128,700 
			 Royal Artillery (1)£17,430 
			 Royal School of Military Engineers (Royal Engineers) £24,220 to £81,870 
			 Royal Signals £13,500 to £53,100 
			 Royal Logistics Corps £3,820 to £33,340 
			 Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (includes the School of Electrical and Aeronautical Engineering and the School of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering) £1,310 to £43,930 
			 Army Medical Corps £28,000 to £87,000 
			 Adjutant General Corps £13,500 to £52,720 
		
	
	
		
			 Intelligence Corps £5,460 to £5,570 
			 1 Single Phase 2 course 
		
	
	Soldier recruits from the Brigade of Gurkhas are subsumed into the appropriate Cap Badge training course, such as Infantry, Royals Engineers, Royal Logistics Corps or the Royal Signals, for Phase 2 training dependent on their job choice.
	Information on the cost of Phase 3 career development training is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost. Once a soldier is fully trained (on completion of their Phase 1 and Phase 2 training), they continue to undertake training throughout their career, dependent on the individual soldier's career path and need. This career development training is varied and diverse and the costs of such training varies from person to person.

Correspondence

Gareth Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many letters to Ministers in his Department were (a) not answered, (b) not answered within six months and (c) not answered within three months in (i) 2010-11 and (ii) 2011-12; how many such letters were from hon. Members; and if he will make a statement.

Andrew Robathan: This information is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost. However, the hon. Member will be aware that the Cabinet Office publishes, by way of a written ministerial statement, an annual report detailing the Government's performance on responding to correspondence from Members of both Houses. The statistics for 2011 were published on 15 March 2012, Official Report, columns 30-33WS.

Defence Equipment: Scotland

Angus Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many (a) aircraft support vehicles, (b) Royal Maritime Auxiliary service ships, (c) fire trucks, (d) rapid intervention crash vehicles, (e) cars and (f) motorcycles of each type are permanently based at each location in Scotland.

Peter Luff: The information requested will take time to be collated.
	I will write to the hon. Member once this is completed.
	Substantive answer from Peter Luff to Angus Robertson:
	I undertook to write to you on the 16 May 2012 (Official Report, Column 168W) in answer to your parliamentary question about how many (a) aircraft support vehicles, (b) Royal Maritime Auxiliary service ships, (c) fire trucks, (d) rapid intervention crash
	vehicles, (e) cars and (f) motorcycles of each type are permanently based at each location in Scotland.
	Information for vehicles operated by the Navy, Army, RAF and the Defence Fire and Rescue Management Organisation which are based in Scotland can be found in the following table.
	
		
			  Aircraft Support vehicles Fire and Rescue Assets Rapid Intervention Crash Vehicles Cars (White Fleet) Motorcycles 
			 7 Cdo Bty RM Condor (Arbroath) — — — 1 — 
			 45 Cdo RM Condor (Arbroath) — — — 5 — 
			 Aberdeen — — — 3 — 
			 Ayr — — — 2 — 
			 Bathgate — — — 1 — 
			 Broxburn — — — 1 — 
			 Oil Fuel Depot Campbeltown(3) — — — — 1 
			 CAPFASFLOT(1) — — — 13 — 
			 HMNB Clyde (Faslane)(2) — 4 1 66 — 
			 RNAD Coulport — 6 1 16 — 
			 Cumbernauld — — — 1 — 
			 Craigiehall — — — 16 — 
			 HMS DALRIADA (Greenock) — — — 1 — 
			 Salvage and Marine (Greenock) — — — 2 — 
			 Dumbarton — — — 3 — 
			 Dumfries — — — 2 — 
			 Dundee — — — 12 — 
			 Dunfermline — — — 5 — 
			 Edinburgh — — — 39 — 
			 Elgin — — — 1 — 
			 Fleet Protection Group (RM) — — — 9 — 
			 Flag Officer Sea Training (Faslane) — — — 4 — 
			 Glasgow — — — 4 — 
			 Glenrothes — — — 1 — 
			 Hamilton — — — 1 — 
			 Inverness — — — 10 — 
			 Northern Diving Group (Faslane) — — — 1 — 
			 RCHQ (N) (HMS Caledonia) — — — 18 — 
			 RAF Kinloss — 2 — 67 — 
			 RAF Leuchars 57 4 7 69 — 
			 Oil Fuel Depot Loch Striven(3) — — — 1 1 
			 DSDA Longtown — 4 — — — 
			 RAF Lossiemouth 77 3 7 77 — 
			 Stirling — — — 27 — 
			 HMS SCOTIA (Rosyth) — — — 1 — 
			 HQ RMR Scotland — — — 2 — 
			 (1) CAPFASFLOT (Captain Faslane Flotilla) includes Faslane and Rosyth, HMS Defender, HMS Neptune and Mine Counter Measures 3 (Faslane). (2) Includes Clyde Off-site Centre, Garelochhead Oil Fuel Depot, and Churchill Square. (3) Under control of HMNB Clyde (Faslane). Notes: 1. Only White Fleet vehicles provided by Babcock Land Ltd are included. 2. Cars cover vehicles up to the size of a people carrier 3. Motorcycles = Quad bikes at Oil Fuel Depots. 
		
	
	There are no longer any Royal Maritime Auxiliary Service (RMAS) ships based in Scotland. The RMAS disbanded in 2008 and all ships were transferred to the contractor Serco Denholm, now known as SD Marine Services Ltd, as part of the Defence Marine Services contract. These ships continue to operate within Scotland but are currently owned by SD Marine Services Ltd.

Disclosure of Information

Jon Trickett: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how much his Department spent on the updating of published data in line with the Government's transparency agenda in each month since September 2011.

Andrew Robathan: The Ministry of Defence (MOD) does not record resources expended on individual administrative tasks related to the implementation of the Transparency Agenda. It is therefore not possible to distinguish these costs separately from the costs of broader administrative functions.
	The National Audit Office conducted a cross-government review entitled “Implementing Transparency” between October and December 2011. The MOD participated in this review, which focused on the implementation of the standard Transparency releases, outlined in the Prime Minister's letters dated May 2010 and July 2011. The NAO report published in April 2012 concluded that:
	“neither the Cabinet Office nor other Departments routinely collect data to monitor the additional costs of transparency initiatives”.

Empty Property

Gareth Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence 
	(1)  if he will list the empty or largely empty buildings owned by his Department; and if he will make a statement;
	(2)  how many buildings owned by his Department and the bodies for which he is responsible have been empty for more than two years; and if he will make a statement.

Andrew Robathan: Given the size of the Defence estate and its diversity of use, some buildings might be empty for periods, such as when units are away training or on deployment. Such instances are not recorded centrally.
	The Ministry of Defence (MOD) keeps its estate under review to ensure it is no larger than required and when property is declared surplus, it is disposed of at the earliest opportunity.
	The latest list of MOD property in disposal will be placed in the Library of the House and details of that currently for sale can be viewed on the MOD website at:
	http://www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/MicroSite/DIO/OurPublications/PropertySearch/

Firing Ranges

Jeffrey M Donaldson: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many firing ranges are operated by (a) his Department and (b) the Defence Infrastructure Organisation; on how many such ranges licensed civilian gun clubs are not permitted regular access; for what reasons civilian gun clubs are not given regular access to certain ranges; on how many such ranges licensed civilian gun clubs are required to undergo counter terrorism check vetting; and how long it took on average for vetting of civilian gun clubs for access to defence firing ranges in the latest period for which figures are available.

Andrew Robathan: holding answer 11 June 2012
	The Ministry of Defence (MOD) operates and manages 542 firing ranges.
	MOD ranges are made available for use by civilian gun clubs only when there is spare capacity. Military training requirements always take precedence. All gun clubs must be licensed and it is an individual Station Commander's responsibility to approve or deny access to their station.
	Access to all military sites is subject to strict security arrangements.
	Figures on the duration for vetting of civilian gun clubs, is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

Germany: Military Bases

Kevan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence 
	(1)  what his Department's estimate is of the cost of the withdrawal of British military bases from Germany;
	(2)  what his Department's timescale is for the withdrawal of British military bases from Germany;
	(3)  whether his Department has provided the German government with official notice of the withdrawal of British military bases from Germany;
	(4)  estimate his Department has made of the potential effect of the withdrawal of British military bases from Germany on the regional economies of Germany;
	(5)  what his Department's projected capital expenditure is for the withdrawal of British military bases from Germany.

Nick Harvey: As part of the Strategic Defence and Security Review we announced our intention to return personnel based in Germany to the UK.
	The full costs of the withdrawal are still being worked through and are, to an extent, dependent on the outcome of the Army's study into its future size and structure (Army 2020). The outcome of Army 2020 will be announced once decisions have been made, which will then allow the Army to work with the Defence Infrastructure Organisation to determine the optimum basing solution for the Army while making best use of the existing defence estate. It is expected that returning troops from Germany will save the Ministry of Defence (MOD) around £250 million a year.
	Concerning the issue of providing the German government with official notice of our withdrawal, I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 29 November 2011, Official Report, column 812W, to the right hon. Member for East Renfrewshire (Mr Murphy). The MOD will continue to provide information to the German Government in a timely manner. The Secretary of State for Defence, the right hon. Member for Runnymede and Weybridge (Mr Hammond) discussed the matter with Minister de Maizière during talks in May this year.
	I would also refer the hon. Member to the answer given by my noble Friend, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Defence, Lord Astor of Hever, to the noble Lord, Lord Janner of Braunstone, in another place on 28 October 2010, Official Report, House of Lords, column WA308.

Gibraltar: Spain

Jim Dobbin: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many times vessels from the Spanish Guardia Civil attempted to intercept or escort any vessel in British Territorial Waters off Gibraltar in the last month.

Nick Harvey: holding answer 11 June 2012
	There were two recorded instances of vessels from the Guardia Civil intercepting marine craft in British Gibraltar Territorial Waters in May 2012.

HMS Vanguard

Paul Flynn: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what the cost of repairs to HMS Vanguard was following its collision at sea with French submarine Le Triomphant in February 2009.

Nick Harvey: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given by the former Secretary of State for Defence my right hon. Friend the Member for North Somerset (Dr Fox), on4 November 2010, Official Report, column 956W, to the hon. Member for Moray (Angus Robertson).

Lost Property

Gareth Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many items of equipment valued at £10,000 or more his Department lost in (a) 2010-11 and (b) 2011-12; and if he will make a statement.

Andrew Robathan: The annual report and accounts provides an itemised list of individual losses valued at £250,000 and above. A summary of losses below that threshold is also provided, but we hold no central record of individual losses valued at less than £250,000. The information requested could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
	Of the overall number of cases of losses, those relating to accountable stores, of all values in 2008-09 to 2010-11 are provided in the following table:
	
		
			  Category B1 losses Category B2 losses 
			 2008-09 400 8,651 
			 2009-10 303 9,673 
			 2010-11 258 9,965 
		
	
	Category B1 losses comprise losses by fraud, theft, arson, sabotage, repairable damage to buildings, stores, etc, caused maliciously.
	Category B2 losses comprise all other losses, including accidental damage, fire, items lost in transit, items exceeding the expiry date, etc.
	Figures for 2011-12 are currently subject to audit.

Military Police

Oliver Colvile: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence whether defence community police officers are covered by the provisions of the Armed Forces Covenant.

Andrew Robathan: holding answer 11 June 2012
	The chief aim of the covenant is to remove disadvantages that members of the armed forces community may suffer as a result of service. The armed forces community is defined as those who serve in the armed forces, whether regular or reserve, those who have served in the past, and their families. Defence community police officers, like other Ministry of Defence police officers, are civil servants, and are thus not brought within the scope of the covenant by their employment.

NATO

Hugh Bayley: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how much the UK contributed to NATO's budgets and programmes in each of the last five years; and what (a) proportion of NATO's overall budget was provided by the UK and (b) NATO's overall expenditure was in each such year.

Gerald Howarth: The United Kingdom's financial contribution to NATO common funds for each of the years in question is set out in Table 1. National cost shares are calculated using an agreed formula which reflects the relative economic strength of the Allies and these are shown in Table 2. Details of the Alliance's overall expenditure for each of the years in question are shown in Table 3.
	These contributions complement the considerable military capability that we make available to NATO, and the manpower that we provide to help run the Alliance Command and Force Structures, and Agencies. Allies have agreed that they should aim to invest at least 2% of GDP in Defence and we continue to encourage others to work towards this goal.
	
		
			 Table 1: UK Contribution to NATO Budgets 
			 £ million 
			  Civil budget Military budget NATO Security Investment Programme (NSIP) 
			 2007-08 25.900 72.279 58.826 
			 2008-09 25.700 86.511 68.867 
			 2009-10 26.300 97.123 76.293 
			 2010-11 24.700 100.753 73.347 
			 2011-12 22.800 104.292 66.316 
		
	
	
		
			 Table 2: UK Contribution as a Proportion of Overall NATO Budget 
			 Percentage 
			  Civil budget Military budget NATO Security Investment Programme (NSIP) 
			 January 2006 to December 2007 15.05 12.14 12.14 
			 January 2008 to December 2009 14,11 12.05 12.05 
			 January 2010 to December 2011 12.59 11.55 11.55 
			 January 2012 11.85 11.17 11.17 
		
	
	
		
			 Table 3: Overall NATO Budget 
			 £ million 
			  Civil budget Military budget(1) NATO Security Investment Programme (NSIP) 
			 2007-08 187.825 736.289 457.613 
			 2008-09 193.650 817.885 478.794 
			 2009-10 201.375 1164.027 676.312 
			 2010-11 204.425 1116.572 581.048 
			 2011-12 210.525 1096.600 585.129 
			 (1) The NATO military budget includes provision for the NATO Airborne Early Warning and Control Force, to which the UK does not contribute, instead making available its E3D SENTRY aircraft as a contribution in kind.

Pay

Gareth Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many staff working for his Department, its executive agencies and non-departmental public bodies are employed through off-payroll engagements costing less than £58,200 per annum; and if he will make a statement.

Andrew Robathan: I am not aware of any civil servant working for the Ministry of Defence, its executive agencies and non-department public bodies being employed through off-payroll engagements.

Official Visits: Plymouth

Alison Seabeck: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence 
	(1)  whether any military assets were used as part of his official visit to Plymouth on 26 March 2012;
	(2)  what the total cost to his Department was of his official visit to Plymouth on 26 March 2012.

Philip Hammond: I utilised a 32 Squadron A109 flight to visit HM Naval Base Devonport and HMS Vengeance in Plymouth on 26 March. The notional cost is around £2,000. I carried out this official visit ahead of attending Defence questions in the House of Commons the same day.

Publications

Jonathan Ashworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many (a) circulars and (b) consultation documents were issued by his Department in each of the last two years.

Andrew Robathan: The Ministry of Defence (MOD) does not hold a central list of information circulated to internal and external audiences and to create such a list would incur disproportionate cost.
	Public consultations are recorded on the MOD's website and can be found at:
	http://www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/AboutDefence/CorporatePublications/ConsultationsandCommunications/PublicConsultations/

Radar

Angus Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what the total cost was of all Giraffe AMB Air search radar systems.

Peter Luff: Giraffe Agile Multi Beam Radar (G-AMB) radars have been procured at a total cost of £34.7 million (excluding VAT).

Submarines

Paul Flynn: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what Public Policy Exclusion Orders under the Competition Act 1998 (a) he and (b) his predecessors have approved since January 2002.

Andrew Robathan: Three orders have been made under the powers conferred by paragraphs 7(1) and (2) of Schedule 3 of the Competition Act 1998 to exclude arrangements from the application of the Competition Act 1998 on the grounds of public policy. They are the Competition Act 1998 (Public Policy Exclusion) Order 2006 relating to the repair and maintenance of surface warships, the Competition Act 1998 (Public Policy Exclusion) Order 2007 relating to complex weapons and the Competition Act 1998 (Public Policy Exclusion) Order 2008 relating to submarine enterprise collaboration. The 2007 Order was revoked by the Competition Act 1998 (Public Policy Exclusion) Order 2011.

Veterans: Employment

Jim Sheridan: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what procurement processes his Department uses to provide employment to (a) Erskine and (b) other charitable organisations which assist disabled ex-service personnel.

Andrew Robathan: We value the contribution of the charitable sector in providing help and support to those who have endured so much, particularly Erskine where the first Personnel Recovery Centre is located.
	In addition to the tailored resettlement support to facilitate the transition from service to civilian life, some require additional help and we are grateful to those that provide this. However, we are not in a contractual relationship to provide employment to Erskine or any other charitable organisation which assist disabled ex-service personnel.

EDUCATION

Academies: Food

Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for Education what information his Department holds on those academies which allow junk food to be available for purchase by pupils.

Sarah Teather: The Secretary of State for Education, the right hon. Member for Surrey Heath (Michael Gove), asked the School Food Trust to look at the approach taken by academies to providing healthy school food. The trust undertook a qualitative study with a mixture of established and new academies, including one free school, and examined the quality of provision to provide a baseline of food provision in academies, and demonstrate the attitudes and intentions of the sector. The report on the study was published on 15 May 2012. This showed that all of the academies interviewed identified food as an important part of overall education provision. Some academies go over and above the minimum requirements and are offering their pupils high quality, nutritional food. The study showed that the academies outperformed maintained schools in all but one of the food standards at lunchtime, but performed less well on some food served at morning break.
	There is therefore room for improvement in all schools, as evidenced by the Secondary School Food Survey, published by the School Food Trust on 28 April 2012. This demonstrates that academies appear to be no worse overall at meeting food-based standards at lunchtime than other schools.

Adoption: Ethnic Groups

Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for Education how many Black and minority ethnic children are awaiting adoption in Leicester.

Tim Loughton: The number of children awaiting adoption in Leicester who are black and minority ethnic was five out of a total of 30 children who were waiting to be adopted, at 31 March 2011, the latest date for which this information is available (figures are rounded to the nearest five children to protect confidentiality).
	The data items in relation to whether adoption from care is/is no longer the plan were introduced on a mandatory basis in the SSDA903 return from local authorities in 2008-09. There may have been some children for whom the decision was made that they should be adopted in earlier years and are still awaiting adoption; however these have not been included in this response due to the partial nature, of the data received for earlier years.
	The decision that a looked after child should be placed for adoption is made by their local authority but a child cannot be placed for adoption without either a placement order from the court or parental consent. Children who are waiting to be adopted include those who have already been placed for adoption (but an adoption order has not yet been made or applied for), those for whom the local authority has applied for a placement order and those where the local authority is identifying a family suitable to meet the needs of the child. Once a child is placed for adoption, it is for the prospective adopters to apply to the court for an adoption order. Being "placed for adoption" means the child goes to live with or continues to live with prospective adopters.
	Information on adopted children can be found in the Statistical First Release 'Children Looked After by Local Authorities in England (including adoption and care leavers)—year ending 31 March 2011', which is available on the Department's website via the following link:
	http://www.education.gov.uk/rsgateway/DB/SFR/s001026/index.shtml

Debts Written Off

Gareth Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Education how much bad debt was written off by his Department in (a) 2010-11 and (b) 2011-12; and if he will make a statement.

Tim Loughton: In line with HMT guidance, the accounts for the Department and its arm’s length bodies (ALBs) set out bad debt written off as 'losses and special payments' and these are separately listed in the accounts in the Losses Statement.
	For 2010-11, the losses for the Department were set out at Note 26 to the Accounts, as follows:
	
		
			  2010-11 
			  No of cases £000 
			 Losses statement   
			 Total 175 23,862 
			 Cash losses 27 13,724 
			 Fruitless payments and constructive losses 143 8,872 
			 Claims waived or abandoned 5 1,266 
			    
			 Special payments   
			 Total 16 1,018 
		
	
	For 2011-12, the losses statement will include the ALBs' data within a consolidated Departmental Group Account. This information has not yet been published as the accounts are being audited by the National Audit Office. When this has been completed they will be laid before Parliament. This is planned to happen by July 2012.

Dyslexia

Gareth Johnson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education how much funding his Department provided to improve teachers' skills and knowledge in supporting dyslexic students in each of the last five years.

Sarah Teather: Over the last five years the Department has provided funding to support teachers develop their skills and knowledge to support children with a broad range of special educational needs, including dyslexic students.
	In relation to specific training for teachers on dyslexia, in 2009-10 we funded the British Dyslexia Association nearly £700,000 to train over 600 teachers.
	In 2010-11 we provided over £5.7 million in funding to enable over 2,400 teachers to participate in specialist dyslexia training approved by the British Dyslexia Association across the country.
	We have also funded professional development to improve teachers' skills and knowledge on SEN more widely. This has included development of the Inclusion Development Programme CPD materials which include a focus on dyslexia.
	Since 2009 we have also provided over £28 million to train nearly 9,000 teachers on the masters-level award in SEN Co-ordination (SENCO).
	We have allocated approximately £750,000 to develop new advanced level training materials for teachers on the most common types of SEN which include modules on dyslexia. These will have been reviewed by the Dyslexia Trust and will shortly be made available on the Department's website.

Dyslexia

Gareth Johnson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education 
	(1)  what steps his Department is taking to support children with dyslexia;
	(2)  what steps his Department is taking to support early identification of dyslexia;
	(3)  what funding his Department provides for diagnostic dyslexia assessments.

Sarah Teather: Early identification is essential to improving the support available to dyslexic pupils. There is no 'formal diagnostic assessment' recommended or funded by the Department for Education. Identification relies on teachers' ability to recognise and respond to early literacy difficulties, supported by more specialist assessment where changes to teaching practice are not effective.
	The Department has made support available to all schools for teaching systematic synthetic phonics, shown to be effective at teaching dyslexic pupils to read. This support includes match funding of up to £3,000 for approved phonics materials. The Year 1 Phonics Screening Check, introduced this June, has been designed to identify pupils who need extra help with decoding words for reading. Teachers should consider what type of support would be best for each pupil who does not meet the expected standard on the screening check. This process should encourage teachers to consider whether individual pupils may have an additional need, for example dyslexia.
	Initial teacher training includes a focus on meeting children's individual needs, including special educational needs. This is supported by specialist resources and an advanced online module for dyslexia developed through the Teaching Agency. Between 2009 and 2011 3,200 teachers completed specialist dyslexia training courses approved by the British Dyslexia Association.
	Where pupils have persistent difficulties, an assessment by an educational psychologist or specialist teacher may be necessary to identify what particular needs the pupil may have, and to put appropriate support in place.
	The Department has provided funding for 9,000 special educational needs co-ordinators (SENCOs) to have completed the mandatory higher level SENCO award by the end of 2011/12. This has provided sufficient funding to for all newly appointed SENCOs to meet the training requirement. Funding is also available for tuition fees and first-year bursaries for up to 120 places on courses for educational psychologists.
	Taken together, these measures should support a range of teachers and specialist staff to identify pupils with dyslexia and provide a suitable assessment of need.
	Finally, the Department is providing funding to the Dysiexia-SpLD Trust to offer reliable information to parents, teachers and schools so that they can support dyslexic children.
	www.thedyslexia-spldtrust.org.uk

Financial Services: Education

Fiona Bruce: To ask the Secretary of State for Education if he will initiate discussions with businesses in the financial services sector to encourage them to support the teaching of financial literacy in secondary schools; and if he will make a statement.

Nick Gibb: holding answer 11 June 2012
	Finance education is currently taught as part of Personal, Social, Health and Economic (PSHE) education. The last OFSTED survey of PSHE, in 2010, included limited evidence about the teaching of personal finance education because the subject was relatively new. We are looking at the quality of finance education as part of a review of PSHE to determine how we can improve the quality of all PSHE teaching.
	Support from businesses in and outside the financial services sector is important in helping schools with their finance education programmes. Schools are already drawing on expertise from financial institutions, and organisations such as the Citizens Advice Bureau, to help deliver financial capability education. However, we want schools to have the flexibility to use their judgment about how best to deliver finance education, including which external partners, to use, rather than for Government to approach businesses directly.
	We set out, in our White Paper, The Importance of Teaching, how schools will be freed from central Government direction, and how we will trust the professional judgment of teachers to decide on the teaching that best meets the needs of their pupils. Consistent with that principle, we have also protected front line school budgets and reduced central Government programmes, so that schools can also decide how to use their resources to meet local priorities. We therefore have no plans to create a database of personal finance education teaching resources and volunteers. Schools are aware that there are a number of sources available from which they can obtain useful information, including, for example, the Personal Finance Education Group, who have a wide range of resources on their website aimed at teachers and finance education practitioners.
	The new Teachers’ Standards, which set out what is expected of all qualified teachers, require teachers to be able to plan out-of-class activities to consolidate and extend the knowledge and understanding pupils have acquired. Consistent with our approach to education reform, it is for training providers such as Teach First to decide what trainees should be taught to enable them to achieve the Teachers Standards. The Department does not mandate the content of initial teachers training courses.

Financial Services: Education

Fiona Bruce: To ask the Secretary of State for Education 
	(1)  if he will encourage Teach First to include the teaching of financial literacy as part of their teacher training;
	(2)  if he will provide funding and support to provide high quality personal finance education in all primary and secondary schools.

Nick Gibb: Finance education is currently taught as part of Personal, Social, Health and Economic (PSHE) education. The last Ofsted survey of PSHE, in 2010, included limited evidence about the teaching of personal finance education because the subject was relatively new. We are looking at the quality of finance education as part of a review of PSHE to determine how we can improve the quality of all PSHE teaching.
	We set out, in our White Paper, “The Importance of Teaching”, how schools will be freed from central Government direction, and how we will trust the professional judgment of teachers to decide on the teaching that best meets the needs of their pupils. Consistent with that principle, we have also protected front line school budgets, and reduced central government programmes, so that schools can also decide how to use their resources to meet local priorities. We therefore have no plans to create a database of personal finance education teaching resources and volunteers. Schools are aware that there are a number of sources available from which they can obtain useful information, including, for example, the Personal Finance Education Group, who have a wide range of resources on their website aimed at teachers and finance education practitioners.

Free School Meals

Graham Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Education what research his Department has conducted into whether some households feel embarrassed about claiming free school meals.

Nick Gibb: holding answer 11 June 2012
	The School Food Trust undertook a review in 2009 of free school meal initiatives across the UK. This showed that there are many reasons why some pupils or parents decide not to claim the free school meal to which they are entitled, including embarrassment. The review ‘Please Sir, can we have some more?' is available on the trust's website at
	http://www.schoolfoodtrust.org.uk/research/research-projects
	The School Food Trust has produced a ‘Free School Meals Matter Toolkit' which provides schools with information and advice to help them to ensure that all pupils entitled to free school meals register for, and take, the meal. The Department's online Eligibility Checking Service enables parents to apply for school meals without having to give the school information about their income from benefits or earnings. This helps to reduce the stigma for eligible pupils.
	A number of schools and local authorities have put in place cashless payment systems which help ensure that those children who are receiving a free school meal can not be identified.

Departmental Staff

Gareth Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Education what target he has set to reduce headcount across his Department, its non-departmental public bodies and executive agencies in (a) 2010-11, (b) 2011-12 and (c) 2012-13; and if he will make a statement.

Tim Loughton: The total headcount of the Department, its non-departmental public bodies and executive agencies fell by 1,378 in 2010-11, from 9,710 to 8,332. There was a further reduction of 509 in 2011-12 to 7,823. No formal target for headcount reduction has been set for 2012-13 but strict controls on recruitment remain in place.

Mutual Societies

Gareth Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Education what estimate he has made of the number of full-time equivalent staff who will transfer from his Department and its non-departmental public bodies' workforce to a mutual in (a) 2011-12 and (b) 2012-13; and if he will make a statement.

Tim Loughton: The Department currently has no plans to transfer any staff to a mutual in either 2011-12 or 2012-13.

Office of the Children's Commissioner Independent Review

Karl McCartney: To ask the Secretary of State for Education what (a) advice and (b) representations he has received from the Office of the Children's Commissioner on the review of its operation by John Dunford.

Sarah Teather: holding answer 11 June 2012
	The Children's Commissioner was interviewed by John Dunford during his review and has also contributed to the Government's consultation on the legislative proposals that will be introduced in order to implement John Dunford's recommendations.

Pupils: Disadvantaged

Graham Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Education for what reasons the pupil premium is awarded on the basis of numbers receiving free school meals; and for what reasons other measures of deprivation are not taken into account when awarding the pupil premium.

Nick Gibb: holding answer 11 June 2012
	Known eligibility for free school meals (FSM) is the only pupil level measure of poverty available. This allows us to identify individual pupils and enable schools to target funding and support directly to them. Data on FSM eligibility is also collected and updated annually meaning that it reflects current need. The link between FSM eligibility and underachievement is very strong. In 2010/11 results showed that only 58% of FSM pupils at key stage 2 achieved the expected level in both English and mathematics compared to 78% of all other pupils. At key stage 4 results showed that only 34.6% of FSM pupils achieved 5 A*-C including English and maths compared with 62% of all other pupils. It is for these reasons that we use FSM eligibility as the main pupil premium indicator.
	Eligibility for the pupil premium has been extended this year to include pupils who have previously been eligible for FSM at any point in the past six years. Evidence shows that these pupils also under achieve when compared to pupils who have never been eligible for FSM.

Schools: Governing Bodies

Aidan Burley: To ask the Secretary of State for Education with reference to the answer of 7 March 2012, Official Report, column 807W, on schools: governing bodies, when he plans to publish the updated version of his Department's guide to the law for school governors.

Nick Gibb: The Governors' Guide to the Law was published on the Department for Education website on Friday 25 May 2012. The guide can be accessed using the following link:
	http://www.education.gov.uk/schools/leadership/governance/guidetothelaw/b0065507/gttl

Schools: Mesothelioma

Annette Brooke: To ask the Secretary of State for Education 
	(1)  what process will be followed in the event that a former pupil or non-employee from an academy or free school develops mesothelioma and makes a claim against the school; and who would be liable for any costs;
	(2)  whether pupils and non-employees are covered for public liability asbestos exposure risks in academies and free schools.

Nick Gibb: holding answer 21 May 2012
	Academies and free schools are autonomous institutions and, as such, are responsible for making their own arrangements for insurance. The Department does not maintain central records of the insurance coverage in place. Discussions with insurers have however indicated that there is a general asbestos exclusion for public liability insurance.
	The Secretary of State for Education, my right hon. Friend the Member for Surrey Heath (Michael Gove), is not legally responsible for any compensation awarded, and nor is he bound by the terms of the funding agreement to compensate an academy for any such liability. However, the Department for Education would work with any affected academy or free school to ensure that it remained financially secure and the education of its pupils was not compromised.

Secondment

Rachel Reeves: To ask the Secretary of State for Education how many staff of his Department are seconded to the Cabinet Office to work (a) in the Reward, Efficiency and Reform Group and (b) on regional pay issues in (i) 2010-11 and (ii) 2011-12; and how many he plans to assign to each in (A) 2013-14 and (B) 2014-15.

Tim Loughton: holding answer 11 June 2012
	The Department does not have a group entitled Reward Efficiency and Reform Group. I have provided information based on the Department's Pay, Conditions and Transactions Team that are responsible for the Department's pay and reward policy, including regional pay issues.
	At 31 March 2011 the team had 13 full time equivalent staff and on 31 March 2012 this figure had fallen to 8.9 full time equivalent staff. There are currently no confirmed plans to change these numbers over the next two years.

Special Educational Needs: Warrington

Helen Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Education what support his Department is providing to the development of better provision for special educational needs in Warrington.

Sarah Teather: holding answer 11 June 2012
	I refer the hon. Member to the statement I made on 15 May 2012, Official Report, column 24WS, setting out our plans to radically reform the current system for identifying, assessing and supporting children and young people who are disabled or have special educational needs (SEN) and their families. We are currently providing £6 million a year to a range of organisations to improve support in local areas including: short breaks for families; training for key workers to support parents; supporting the national network to continue to develop parent partnership services that offer information and advice to parents about SEN; helping young people prepare for adulthood; helping early years professionals to identify children's language needs and improve their early language development; developing approaches to early intervention in mental health support for children and young people; and supporting local Parent and Carer forums to work with local authorities to help design and develop local services.
	We have also launched a scholarship scheme for teachers to undertake specialist postgraduate qualifications and introduced a similar scheme for talented support staff to gain degree-level qualifications to improve their knowledge and expertise. We have developed materials on specific impairments to support continuing professional development and developed a greater focus on SEN within standards for qualified teacher status and the new professional qualification for headship.